O'Neill, Scott Leslie, Hancock, Penelope A., Sinkins, Steven P. and Godfray, H. Charles J.. (2011) Strategies for Introducing Wolbachia to Reduce Transmission of Mosquito-Borne Diseases. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol.5 (No.4). Article No.e1024. ISSN 1935-2727

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Abstract

Certain strains of the endosymbiont Wolbachia have the potential to lower the vectorial capacity of mosquito populations and assist in controlling a number of mosquito-borne diseases. An important consideration when introducing Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes into natural populations is the minimisation of any transient increase in disease risk or biting nuisance. This may be achieved by predominantly releasing male mosquitoes. To explore this, we use a sex-structured model of Wolbachia-mosquito interactions. We first show that Wolbachia spread can be initiated with very few infected females provided the infection frequency in males exceeds a threshold. We then consider realistic introduction scenarios involving the release of batches of infected mosquitoes, incorporating seasonal fluctuations in population size. For a range of assumptions about mosquito population dynamics we find that male-biased releases allow the infection to spread after the introduction of low numbers of females, many fewer than with equal sex-ratio releases. We extend the model to estimate the transmission rate of a mosquito-borne pathogen over the course of Wolbachia establishment. For a range of release strategies we demonstrate that male-biased release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes can cause substantial transmission reductions without transiently increasing disease risk. The results show the importance of including mosquito population dynamics in studying Wolbachia spread and that male-biased releases can be an effective and safe way of rapidly establishing the symbiont in mosquito populations.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- )
Journal or Publication Title:	PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
ISSN:	1935-2727
Date:	2011
Volume:	Vol.5
Number:	No.4
Page Range:	Article No.e1024
Identification Number:	10.1371/journal.pntd.0001024
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	European Union (EU)
Grant number:	FP7/2007-2013 223241
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/42569

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

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