Mosquitoes represent a considerable nuisance and are actual/potential vectors of human diseases in Europe. Costly and labour-intensive entomological monitoring is needed to correct planning of interventions aimed at reducing nuisance and the risk of pathogen transmission. The widespread availability of mobile phones and of massive Internet connections opens the way to the contribution of citizen in complementing entomological monitoring. ZanzaMapp is the first mobile “mosquito” application for smartphones specifically designed to assess citizens’ perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy. Differently from other applications targeting mosquitoes, ZanzaMapp prioritizes the number of records over their scientific authentication by requesting users to answer four simple questions on perceived mosquito presence/abundance/nuisance and geo-localizing the records. The paper analyses 36,867 ZanzaMapp records sent by 13,669 devices from 2016 to 2018 and discusses the results with reference to either citizens’ exploitation and appreciation of the app and to the consistency of the results obtained with the known biology of main mosquito species in Italy. In addition, we provide a first small-scale validation of ZanzaMapp data as predictors of Aedes albopictus biting females and examples of spatial analyses and maps which could be exploited by public institutions and administrations involved in mosquito and mosquito-borne pathogen monitoring and control

Caputo, B.; Manica, M.; Filipponi, F.; Blangiardo, M.; Cobre, P.; Delucchi, L.; De Marco, C.M.; Iesu, L.; Morano, P.; Petrella, V.; Salvemini, M.; Bianchi, C.; Della Torre, A. (2020). ZanzaMapp: a scalable citizen science tool to monitor perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy and beyond. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, 17 (21): 7872. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217872 handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10449/67428

ZanzaMapp: a scalable citizen science tool to monitor perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy and beyond

Caputo, B.
Primo
;
Manica, M.;Delucchi, L.;
2020-01-01

Abstract

Mosquitoes represent a considerable nuisance and are actual/potential vectors of human diseases in Europe. Costly and labour-intensive entomological monitoring is needed to correct planning of interventions aimed at reducing nuisance and the risk of pathogen transmission. The widespread availability of mobile phones and of massive Internet connections opens the way to the contribution of citizen in complementing entomological monitoring. ZanzaMapp is the first mobile “mosquito” application for smartphones specifically designed to assess citizens’ perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy. Differently from other applications targeting mosquitoes, ZanzaMapp prioritizes the number of records over their scientific authentication by requesting users to answer four simple questions on perceived mosquito presence/abundance/nuisance and geo-localizing the records. The paper analyses 36,867 ZanzaMapp records sent by 13,669 devices from 2016 to 2018 and discusses the results with reference to either citizens’ exploitation and appreciation of the app and to the consistency of the results obtained with the known biology of main mosquito species in Italy. In addition, we provide a first small-scale validation of ZanzaMapp data as predictors of Aedes albopictus biting females and examples of spatial analyses and maps which could be exploited by public institutions and administrations involved in mosquito and mosquito-borne pathogen monitoring and control
Citizen science
Mosquito
Nuisance
Biting activity
Tiger mosquito
Aedes albopictus
Settore VET/06 - PARASSITOLOGIA E MALATTIE PARASSITARIE DEGLI ANIMALI
2020
Caputo, B.; Manica, M.; Filipponi, F.; Blangiardo, M.; Cobre, P.; Delucchi, L.; De Marco, C.M.; Iesu, L.; Morano, P.; Petrella, V.; Salvemini, M.; Bianchi, C.; Della Torre, A. (2020). ZanzaMapp: a scalable citizen science tool to monitor perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy and beyond. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, 17 (21): 7872. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217872 handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10449/67428
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