The #MosquitoAlertBCN project team has developed the first daily map that predicts the risk of finding a tiger mosquito in Barcelona . It is a digital map, unique in the world, that reports in real time and on a 20-meter scale about the likelihood of a mosquito and a person meeting or interacting that day.
The Mosquito Alert app is now available in 18 European countries from Europe and will help monitoring the spread of these insects, which can transmit viral diseases such as dengue or Japanese encephalitis.
Aedes japonicus is an invasive insect capable of transmitting diseases such as West Nile virus. The mosquito was found in Asturias (North Spain) when a person sent a photo of the insect with the Mosquito Alert app in june.
When an animal has limited information about its environment, a chaotic movement pattern could be an efficient strategy for finding what it needs. For mollusks, this could result from internal neural processes. Understanding the mechanisms for chaos generation and its connection with search behavior could help apply these types of patterns to research on humans.
This new program updates the project previously known as AtrapaelTigre, and includes the mosquito Aedes aegypti which is responsible for the spread of Zika virus. The updated project will implement an early warning system based on citizen science for the detection of the mosquito’s possible arrival to Spain. Also, monitoring of the presence and spread of the tiger mosquito will be expanded with the objective that the data be incorporated into Spanish systems of public health management and epidemiological research.
The BaixLlobregat Mosquito Control Service is carrying out vehicle searches in coordination with the Mossos de Esquadra (Catalonian National Police) as part of the Atrapaeltigre.com project led by a team from CEAB-CSIC and CREAF. According to 2014 citizen data collected using the app Tigatrapp, this summer Spanish may have transported as many 800,000 tiger mosquitos in their vehicles.
AtrapaelTigre.com is a citizen science project promoting active collaboration of citizens by way of its app, Tigatrapp. The initiative originated in Catalonia and is capable of managing information from thousands of tiger mosquito breeding sites.
