Seminar

Mosquito Alert: a citizen science project for Aedes invasive mosquito species surveillance.

Seminario rivolto agli studenti del corso di laurea magistrale in Agrifoodi Innovation Management
20 January 2023
Start time 
9:30 am
Palazzo della Ricerca e della Conoscenza, via Mach 1, San Michele all'Adige
Organizer: 
prof. Roberto Rosà
Target audience: 
UniTrento students
Attendance: 
Free
Speaker: 
Dr. Beniamino Caputo, Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health, Roma-La Sapienza

Abstract
Mosquito Alert is a citizen science initiative aiming to involve citizens in monitoring of mosquito species and of human-mosquito contact, and to raise awareness on public health threats associated to mosquito vector of diseases and on individual actions useful to prevent their multiplication. The main pillar of this initiative is an application for smart-phones (Mosquito Alert, MA) created in Spain and available in Italian and other 18 languages since October 2020. The Mosquito Alert Italia task-force (including Universities, natural history museums and health institutions) is taking care of promotion and exploitation of MA in Italy, under the coordination of Medical Entomology group of Sapienza University. The app allows citizens to notify, by means of photos, the discovery of a mosquito and the presence of breeding sites, and to record biting activities. A team of expert entomologists validate the received photos and notify the participant of the results, which can be directly visualised on a georeferenced online map. MA app and associated Italian web-site also provide useful information on mosquito morphology and bionomics and on preventive/control options.
During the seminar, will be described the results from the two year of the project’s implementation with particular reference to:

  1. action/education events implemented for promotion and dissemination;
  2. participation within the project like propensity score sampling effort;
  3. identification of photographic mosquito reports by Entolab Italian community thanks to a dedicated online software platforms;
  4. preliminary data exploitation by mathematical and statistical model to estimate the human- mosquito contact probability;
  5. temporal population dynamic and biting behaviour of Aedes albopictus and Culex sp mosquitoes. 

Short Bio
Beniamino Caputo is assistant Professor of Parasitology at Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health (DIDPH) University of Roma “Sapienza”. He carried out research in the field of medical entomology, with particular focus on mosquito vectors of human and zoonotic malaria and arboviruses. During the post doc years (2008-2012) and Assistant Professor extended the studies in population genetics, ecological genetics, chemical ecology and evolutionary biology of the main malaria vector An. gambiae. In the frame of these research, he conducted several field missions in Afrotropical areas in collaboration with several Afro-tropical institutes. He provided the first evidence of a hybrid zone in the Far West of An. gambiae and An. coluzzii range where reproductive isolation between the two species is collapsed and where a new “hybrid form” characterized by an extraordinary mosaic of diversity is present. Since 2011 -in the frame of European project FP7-HEALTH-2010-EDENext- he devoted part of its research to the development of new tools for monitor and control container-breeding invasive mosquito, which represent potential vectors of human arboviruses in Southern Europe. He develops research interest on ecological and epidemiological studies determining the role of the invasive mosquito species Aedes albopictus in European metropolitan areas. In particular, he focused the analysis on the behavioural parameters particularly relevant in the determining the mosquito vectorial capacity in urban areas, studying: i) population spatial abundance and temporal dynamic collecting data using trap and/or digital monitoring; ii) human biting rate, iii) population size, iv) female and male dispersion and longevity; v) human innate immune response against antropozonotic and zoonotic virus; vi) the level of insecticide susceptibility of Italian population. These studies give the opportunity to develop different statistical and probabilistic epidemiological models to determine the risk of arboviruses in European cities. From 2016, contribute to develop a digital monitoring app to estimate the level of Aedes albopictus nuisance and is member of working group of “Global Mosquito Alert Consortium: A Roadmap Towards a Common Protocol and Platform for Citizen Science Vector monitoring”.