![\"Ovillanta](\"http:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/p521-153_page1_image1.jpg\")
<\/a>Ovillanta being made in Guatemala. Photo Daniel Pinelo.<\/p><\/div>\n
The system includes an innovative Canadian-designed trap called an \u201cOvillanta,\u201d created from two 50 cm sections of an old car tyre, fashioned into a mouth-like shape, with a fluid release valve at the bottom. Inside the lower tyre cavity, a milk-based, nontoxic solution developed at Sudbury\u2019s Laurentian University lures mosquitoes. Inserted to float in the artificial pond is a wooden or paper strip on which the female insect lays her eggs. The strip is removed twice weekly, analyzed for monitoring purposes, and the eggs destroyed using fire or ethanol.<\/p>\n
The solution, which now includes mosquito pheromone, is then drained, filtered, and recycled back into the tyre. The pheromone concentrates over time, making the Ovillanta even more attractive for mosquitoes. With a grant from Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, the researchers, led by Gerardo Ulibarri of Laurentian University with collaborators Angel Betanzos and Mireya Betanzos of the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, conducted the project in collaboration with Guatemala\u2019s Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Ovillanta in situ. Credit Daniel Pinelo.<\/p><\/div>\n
They found the rubber Ovillanta significantly more effective at attracting the Aedes mosquito than standard traps made from 1-litre buckets. During the 10 month study, the team collected and destroyed over 18,100 Aedes eggs per month using 84 Ovillantas in seven neighbourhoods of the town of Sayaxche (population 15,000), almost seven times the roughly 2,700 eggs collected monthly using 84 standard traps in the same study areas.<\/p>\n
A tantalizing but anecdotal observation was that there were no new cases of dengue reported as originating in the Ovillanta study test area, a community that would normally anticipate two or three dozen cases in that timeframe. Targeting mosquito eggs using the Ovillanta, Dr. Ulibarri says, is one third as expensive as trying to destroy larvae in natural ponds and only 20% the cost of targeting adult insects with pesticides, which also harm bats, dragonflies and the mosquitoes\u2019 other natural predators.<\/p>\n
The Ovillanta was modeled after a mosquito trap developed at Laurentian University in response to the outbreak of West Nile virus in northern Ontario, which uses a modified solution to lure the Culex genus of mosquito, the West Nile carrier thought by some to be also the Zika carrier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided to use recycled tyres \u2013 partly because tyres already represent up to 29% of the breeding sites chosen by the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, partly because tyres are a universally affordable instrument in low-resource settings, and partly because giving old tyres a new use creates an opportunity to clean up the local environment,\u201d said Dr. Ulibarri.<\/p>\n
Key to the overall system is an online training program to strengthen the mosquito control expertise of local health workers, coupled with a community engagement strategy that involves households in the regular maintenance of their Ovillanta. The community members collect the egg-laden strips of paper or wood from the Ovillanta and pass them to the health workers, who conduct the monitoring and destruction using fire or ethanol.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Ovillanta with paper strips visible.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Aedes genus of mosquito \u2014 the principal genus that transmits Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses \u2014 has proven extremely difficult to control using other strategies, according to the World Health Organization. A female, with a natural lifespan of up to three months, can start to reproduce in one week. Pesticide-resistance, dwindling resources, and an increase in mosquito-friendly environments have thwarted traditional methods of controlling the insect\u2019s rapid spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cInnovation is a key driver underlying the Government of Canada\u2019s approach to international development,\u201d said Canada\u2019s Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau. \u201cInnovative solutions that deliver improved global health outcomes \u2013 such as for the fight against the Zika virus – are needed. While in its early days, this integrated innovation of a mosquito trap coupled with training local health workers and engaging communities in vector control is a promising example of how Canada\u2019s leadership in development innovation can respond to public health emergencies such as Zika,\u201d said Dr. Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. Published in<\/strong> International Pest Control \u2013 May\/June 2016 issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Canadian Government funding, a team of innovators from Canada and Mexico have successfully tested a low cost, environmentally-friendly way of destroying the eggs of the mosquito genus that spreads dengue, and is likely spreading the Zika virus. The 10 month study, conducted in a remote, urban area of Guatemala, shows the successful development and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[526,72,524,525,475],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/p521-153_page2_image26.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4110"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4122,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions\/4122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international-pest-control.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor more information visit. www.grandchallenges.ca<\/a><\/p>\n