Field evaluation of a push-pull system to reduce malaria transmission

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 29;10(4):e0123415. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123415. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Malaria continues to place a disease burden on millions of people throughout the tropics, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Although efforts to control mosquito populations and reduce human-vector contact, such as long-lasting insecticidal nets and indoor residual spraying, have led to significant decreases in malaria incidence, further progress is now threatened by the widespread development of physiological and behavioural insecticide-resistance as well as changes in the composition of vector populations. A mosquito-directed push-pull system based on the simultaneous use of attractive and repellent volatiles offers a complementary tool to existing vector-control methods. In this study, the combination of a trap baited with a five-compound attractant and a strip of net-fabric impregnated with micro-encapsulated repellent and placed in the eaves of houses, was tested in a malaria-endemic village in western Kenya. Using the repellent delta-undecalactone, mosquito house entry was reduced by more than 50%, while the traps caught high numbers of outdoor flying mosquitoes. Model simulations predict that, assuming area-wide coverage, the addition of such a push-pull system to existing prevention efforts will result in up to 20-fold reductions in the entomological inoculation rate. Reductions of such magnitude are also predicted when mosquitoes exhibit a high resistance against insecticides. We conclude that a push-pull system based on non-toxic volatiles provides an important addition to existing strategies for malaria prevention.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anopheles / drug effects*
  • Anopheles / physiology
  • Humans
  • Insect Vectors / drug effects*
  • Insect Vectors / physiology
  • Insecticide Resistance
  • Insecticide-Treated Bednets
  • Insecticides / pharmacology
  • Kenya / epidemiology
  • Malaria / epidemiology
  • Malaria / prevention & control
  • Malaria / transmission*
  • Mosquito Control / methods*

Substances

  • Insecticides

Grants and funding

The laboratory work was funded by the European Union through NMP2-2009-228639, FP7, NOBUG project; the fieldwork was funded by a grant from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative (GCGH#121). Ana S. Carreira gratefully acknowledges the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, for the financial support under the PhD grant (SFRH/BDE/51601/2011), which includes the encapsulation work. Devan Chemicals and Utexbel provided support in the form of salaries for authors Patrice Vandendaele and Jean-Luc Derycke. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.