Authors

M Sinka ¹;  ¹ University of Oxford, UK

Discussion

Of the 3500 species of mosquito in the world, only around 100 are able to transmit human diseases with sufficient efficiency to be dangerous. What tends to distinguish these species is their affinity with humans; making use of the altered environments we create. Their species-specific behavioural characteristics (e.g. a preference for human blood or the drive to search indoors for a blood meal) influence their capacity to spread disease as well as how effective our current arsenal of (most indoor and insecticide-based) interventions will be at controlling them. Thus correctly identifying which species of vector are found at a location is fundamental to successful vector control.
Methods: Here I will describe HumBug – an acoustic mosquito sensor that uses a budget smartphone to detect and identify mosquito vectors as they attempt to bite people indoors during the night. I will highlight the challenges (mosquitoes are very small and not very loud) and the benefits (cheap, standardised vector surveillance over spatial and temporal ranges that are impossible to achieve using traditional surveillance methodologies) and present field results from our trials conducted in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Results: The HumBug tool successfully captured mosquito flight tones from every house where it was deployed. Its performance was compared to CDC-LTs and human baited nets and accurately represented the seasonal fluctuation in abundance. Nocturnal peak biting activity was also clearly seen via the acoustic data. Community acceptance of the tool was high and few issues were reported
Conclusion: The HumBug tool could be of significant value in long term monitoring over spatial scales not possible to achieve via traditional sampling methodologies. Moreover, it could provide a solution for long term passive monitoring for invasive vector species such as An. stephensi in Africa.