title: Enhancement of the BG-sentinel trap with varying number of mice for field sampling of male and female Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Trapping male mosquitoes in the field is essential for the development of area-wide vector control programs with a sterile insect technique (SIT) component. To determine the optimal temporal and spatial release strategy, an estimation of the wild population density and its temporal dynamics is essential. Among the traps available for such data collection, the BG-Sentinel trap developed by the Biogents company uses a combination of visual cues, convection currents and olfactory signals. Although in numerous cases, this trap has shown high efficiency in sampling Aedes albopictus, in some cases low capture rates of Ae. albopictus males were recorded for the BG-sentinel mosquito trap baited with synthetic attractants.
  
  
  METHODS
  The effects of modifying the BG-sentinel trap (by adding one mouse, two or three live mice to the trap) on the efficiency of trapping Ae. albopictus males and females was tested. The experiment was carried out in three distinct areas on La Réunion that have been selected for pilot field testing of the release of sterile male Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. The effect of four types of attractant (including the generic BG-Lure, one mouse or two to three mice) in baited BGS traps was tested with a Latin square design in order to control for the variability of different sampling positions and dates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the three studied sites, the number of Ae. albopictus adults caught and the proportion of males per trap consistently increased with the number of mice present in the trap.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results from this study suggest that some new attractants derived from, or similar to, mouse odors could be developed and tested in combination with other existing attractive components, such as CO2and heat, in order to provide a reliable estimation method for Ae. albopictus adult male abundance in the wild.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS/IRD/UM), Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs, Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle, Montpellier, France.|IRD Réunion/GIP CYROI (Recherche Santé Bio-innovation), Sainte Clotilde, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Le Goff
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS/IRD/UM), Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs, Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle, Montpellier, France. david.damiens@ird.fr.|IRD Réunion/GIP CYROI (Recherche Santé Bio-innovation), Sainte Clotilde, Reunion Island, France. david.damiens@ird.fr.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Damiens
authors.affiliation: Service de lutte anti vectorielle, Agence Régionale de Santé-Océan Indien (ARS-OI), Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Payet
authors.affiliation: Service de lutte anti vectorielle, Agence Régionale de Santé-Océan Indien (ARS-OI), Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Abdoul-Hamid
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Ruttee
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS/IRD/UM), Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs, Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle, Montpellier, France.|IRD Réunion/GIP CYROI (Recherche Santé Bio-innovation), Sainte Clotilde, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jean
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS/IRD/UM), Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs, Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle, Montpellier, France.|IRD Réunion/GIP CYROI (Recherche Santé Bio-innovation), Sainte Clotilde, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Cyrille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lebon
authors.affiliation: Service de lutte anti vectorielle, Agence Régionale de Santé-Océan Indien (ARS-OI), Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Sébastien
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Dehecq
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS/IRD/UM), Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs, Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle, Montpellier, France.|IRD Réunion/GIP CYROI (Recherche Santé Bio-innovation), Sainte Clotilde, Reunion Island, France.
authors.forename: Louis-Clément
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Gouagna
keywords: Arbovirus vector; Sterile insect technique; Trapping mosquito