Field performance of sterile male mosquitoes released from an uncrewed aerial vehicle
Abstract
Genetic control methods of mosquito vectors of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika are becoming increasingly popular due to the limitations of other techniques such as the use of insecticides. The sterile insect technique is an effective genetic control method to manage insect populations. However, it is crucial to release sterile mosquitoes by air to ensure homogeneous coverage, especially in large areas. Here, we report a fully automated adult mosquito release system operated from an uncrewed aerial vehicle or drone. Our system, developed and tested in Brazil, enabled a homogeneous dispersal of sterile male Aedes aegypti while maintaining their quality, leading to a homogeneous sterile-to-wild male ratio due to their aggregation in the same sites. Our results indicate that the released sterile males were able to compete with the wild males in mating with the wild females; thus, the sterile males were able to induce sterility in the native female population. The use of drones to implement the sterile insect technique will lead to improvements in areal coverage and savings in operational costs due to the requirement of fewer release sites and field staff.
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Supplementary Material
Summary
Materials and Methods
Results
Fig. S1. Flight ability results of male A. aegypti following 2 hours of immobilization at 4°C under various levels of compaction.
Fig. S2. The average time taken (seconds) for 75% of adult male A. aegypti to regain flight ability following immobilization at 6°, 8°, and 10°C for 1 to 4 hours.
Fig. S3. Flight ability results of male A. aegypti after passing through two prototype release mechanisms versus a control sample.
Fig. S4. Flight ability of male A. aegypti after passing through the cylinder release mechanism at different speeds (1 or 3 rpm).
Fig. S5. Flight ability of male A. aegypti after passing through the cylinder release mechanism depending on their position in the canister.
Fig. S6. Wind speed test chamber.
Fig. S7. Differentiation of sterile males from wild flies using fluorescent dust.
Fig. S8. Temporal dynamics of the fertility rate measured with ovitraps in a control site close to the release area from 27 March 2017 to 14 May 2018.
Fig. S9. Number of positive traps with at least one sterile male captured in quadrats of 3*3, 5*5, and 10*10 over the study area (dotted line).
Table S1. Fixed-effects coefficients of a Gaussian model of the impact of temperature and chilling duration on the wake-up time of A. aegypti.
Table S2. Fixed-effects coefficients of a mixed-effect binomial model of the impact of wind speed in the wind tunnel on the escape rate of A. aegypti measured in the IAEA reference flight test.
Table S3. Comparison of the mortality rates of the different series in the field.
Data file S1. Raw dataset.
Movie S1. Presentation of the drone trial run in Brazil, March 2018.
Resources
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Science Robotics
Volume 5 | Issue 43
June 2020
June 2020
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
Submission history
Received: 18 December 2019
Accepted: 22 May 2020
Acknowledgments
We are thankful to P. Causse for mounting the video presented in movie S1. Funding: This project received funding from the USAID through the project “Combatting Zika and future threats, a grand challenge for development,” the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, and the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 682387—REVOLINC). This article reflects only the authors’ views, and the agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Author contributions: J.B., N.J.C., A.K., J.G., R.A.H., and F.B. designed all experiments. J.B., N.J.C., M.G.P., M.C.P., L.G., A.T.M.P., A.K., J.G., T.W., G.S.-H., R.A.H., H.Y., and F.B. performed all experiments. J.B. and A.H.D. analyzed the data. J.B., J.V., A.K., and M.J.B.V. provided funding and supervised the experiments. J.B., N.J.C., A.H.D., M.G.P., J.G., F.B., and M.J.B.V. wrote the first draft of the paper, and all authors contributed to the submitted version. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper or the Supplementary Materials.
Authors
Funding Information
United States Agency for International Development: Combatting Zika and future threats, a grand challenge for development
H2020 European Research Council: 682387
International Atomic Energy Agency: RLA5074
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