Last Updated: 04/04/2019
Development of new tools for malaria mosquito surveillance to improve vector control
Objectives
This project proposes to develop a rapid and cost-effective tool based on mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) analysis to simultaneously determine demographic traits in malaria vector to facilitate large scale surveillance of wild populations.
Specifically, the research team aims to develop this technology to determine:
- The species and age
- Insecticide resistance status
Malaria transmission is influenced not only by vector abundance but also by demographic traits such as vector species and age structure, as these influence the intensity by which the disease is transmitted. Measuring these traits and susceptibility to insecticide in natural mosquito populations is key to implement vector control strategies. Currently, methods to measure all these traits are expensive and time-consuming and cannot be combined to simultaneously measure the individual mosquitoes.
The methodology is based on the MIRS measurement of the amount of light absorbed by the mosquito cuticle. As cuticular composition changes during mosquito ageing, it differs between species and is influenced by insecticide resistance status. The project will use the MIR spectra to predict these traits, specifically, using computational analysis based on neural networks, the research team will analyse the complexity of the spectra variations associated with specific traits to make accurate predictions.
MIRS will be used to measure different malaria mosquito species with different traits under laboratory settings to develop predictive algorithms; afterwards, they will optimize the tool incorporating spectra from natural mosquitoes collected from the field.
The development of the tool will directly enable the direct integration of this technology into large scale vector surveillance programmes, enabling critically important insights to assist the control of malaria vectors.
Apr 2017 — Sep 2019
$200,143
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