PesTrapp mobile app: A trap setting application for real-time entomological field and laboratory study

Diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika and chikungunya remain endemic in many countries. Setting and deploying traps to capture the host/vector species are fundamental to understand their density and distributions. Human effort to manage the trap data accurately and timely is an exhaustive endeavour when the study area expands and period prolongs. One stop mobile app to manage and monitor the process of targeted species trapping, from field to laboratory level is still scarce. Toward this end, we developed a new mobile app named "PesTrapp" to acquire the vector density index based on the mobile updates of ovitraps and species information in field and laboratory. This study aimed to highlight the mobile app's development and design, elucidate the practical user experiences of using the app and evaluate the preliminary user assessment of the mobile app. The mobile app was developed using mobile framework and database. User evaluation of the mobile app was based on the adjusted Mobile App Rating Scale and Standardized User Experience Percentile Rank Questionnaire. The process flows of system design and detailed screen layouts were described. The user experiences with and without the app in a project to study Aedes surveillance in six study sites in Selangor, Malaysia were elucidated. The overall mean user evaluation score of the mobile app was 4.0 out of 5 (SD=0.6), reflects its acceptability of the users. The PesTrapp, a one-stop solution, is anticipated to improve the entomological surveillance work processes. This new mobile app can contribute as a tool in the vector control countermeasure strategies.

Status of pyrethroid resistance in Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linneaus) from dengue hotspots in Klang Valley, Malaysia

The continued absence of an effective and safe tetravalent dengue vaccine and the lack of specific anti-viral treatment have made mosquito vector control using chemical insecticides as the mainstream for dengue prevention and control. However, the long-term use of chemical insecticides may induce resistance. Hence detection of insecticide resistance in dengue vectors is crucially important in ensuring the insecticide-based intervention in dengue control program is still effective and reliable. In this study, the susceptibility status of Aedes aegypti from five selected dengue hotspots in Klang Valley, Malaysia against pyrethroids was determined by employing the World Health Organization (WHO) protocol of adult bioassay. Four types of pyrethroids were tested against adult female Aedes aegypti to determine the knockdown rate, post 24-h adult mortality and resistance ratio. All field-collected Aedes aegypti strains were resistant to the four pyrethroids tested, except for the Taman Sungai Jelok (TSJ) strain. Permethrin exhibited the lowest knockdown rate against Aedes aegypti, followed by deltamethrin, cyfluthrin and lambda-cyhalothrin. This present study indicated the widespread of pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti in Klang Valley, indicating the needs of implementing alternative measures in vector control program. The data in this study can be utilised as an input for insecticide resistance management of Aedes aegypti in Malaysia.