An Exposure-Free Tool for Monitoring Adult Malaria Mosquito Populations

Catches of Anopheles gambtae and An arabiensis with the lfakara Tent Trap-model B (ITT-B) correlate better with human landing catches than any other method but fail to reduce the proportion of blood-fed mosquito caught. which indicates that users are exposed to bites during collection An improved C model (ITT-C) was developed and evaluated by comparing with ITT-B in semi-field and full-field conditions in southern Tanzania The sensitivity of the ITT-C was approximately two times that of the ITT-B relative rate (95% confidence interval) = 1 92 (1 52-2 42), 1 90 (1 48-2.43). and 2 30 (1 54-3 30) for field populations of An arabiensis.Culex spp, and Mansoma spp. respectively The ITT-C caught 73% less blood-fed An arabiensis than the ITT-B in open field experiments and none in semi-field experiments. which confirmed that the C design is a safe trapping method Validation of ITT-C by comparison with human landing catches and parasitologic measures of human infection status may be necessary to confirm that this design produces consistent and epidemiologically meaningful results