Field deployment of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti using uncrewed aerial vehicle

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, there has been a marked increase in diseases like dengue fever, chikungunya, and Zika. The World Mosquito Program (WMP) has developed an approach that, instead of attempting to eliminate vector species, introduces Wolbachia into native Aedes aegypti populations through the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes. Using this approach, a randomized controlled study recently demonstrated a 77% reduction in dengue across a treatment area within Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Existing release methods use the ground-based release of mosquito eggs or adults that are labor-intensive, are logistically challenging to scale up, and can be restrictive in areas where staff safety is a concern. To overcome these limitations, we developed a fully automated mosquito dosing release system that released smaller cohorts of mosquitoes over a wide area and integrated it into an uncrewed aerial vehicle. We established the effectiveness of this system using an aerial mark, release, and recapture approach. We then demonstrated that using only the aerial release method, we can establish Wolbachia infection in a naive Ae. aegypti population. In both cases, the use of aerial releases demonstrated comparable outcomes to ground-based releases without the required labor or risk. These two trials demonstrated the feasibility of using an aerial release approach for large-scale mosquito releases.