Wolbachia Mosquitoes – The Field

23 Jan 2017

Site Selection for Wolbachia Infected Aedes aegypti Release

At present, two sites have been identified to be suitable for population replacement trial run. The sites are 1) AU2 Keramat, Selangor and 2) Section 7, Shah Alam, Selangor. These sites have been identified as dengue hotspot areas. Besides, there are some other selection criteria to be included in selecting trial sites such as presence of high population of both Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus,  the size of the release sites should be at least 0.6 km², and logistically convenient from the mosquito breeding facility in IMR.

Monitoring After Release

Three week post release, the ovitraps will be deployed at the sites to monitor the spread of Wolbachia infected Aedes aegypti.  The recovered ovitraps will be brought back to the laboratory and the larvae will be screened for the presence of Wolbachia using molecular technique.

For ovitrapping, the ovitrap used consisted of a black plastic container of 300 ml volume (base diameter 6.5 cm, opening diameter 7.8 cm and height 9.0 cm). A hard-board measuring 10 cm x 2.5 cm x 0.3 cm was placed in the ovitrap container with the rough surface upward to serve as an oviposition paddle. Clean water was added to a level of 5.5 cm. Ovitraps will be placed outdoor for a period of 5 days and the ovitraps will be collected and brought back to the Medical Entomology Unit laboratory for species identification and Wolbachia detection.

Samples from ovitraps for species identification