Regensburg, Germany, 2016/06/29 - Scientists all over the world can now track
the growth of mosquito populations on their computers. “The BG-Counter is a
new kind of mosquito counting machine that allows scientists and health
authorities to be proactive against a coming infestation,” says Dr. Martin Geier
of Biogents AG in Regensburg, Germany. The high-tech equipment was
developed by the Regensburg mosquito experts in cooperation with a company
from Silicon Valley and has been successfully tested since autumn 2015 in the
Florida Keys on the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. The counter is now
going into serial production. Recently, a demonstration model has come online
at Lake Starnberg south of Munich. Since mid-June, it has been possible to track
the increase in mosquito populations after the recent floods and even the times
at which these insects are particularly active.
Last week, Microsoft announced that it was developing a similar mosquito
trapping system, indicating that the demand for such intelligent mosquito traps
is great and will continue to grow in the future. Globally, mosquitoes are
considered among the creatures most dangerous to humans. Hundreds of
thousands of people die each year from mosquito-borne diseases. Biogents AG,
headquartered in the Bavarian city of Regensburg, has a prominent position in
this promising market. For example, Biogents traps are considered the gold
standard for Yellow Fever and Asian tiger mosquitoes around the world. No
wonder since they are based on more than twenty years of intensive research
and development.
Whether the Microsoft traps will be comparable to those made by Biogents
remains to be seen. “Microsoft wants to develop traps into some kind of flying
laboratories that are supposed to solve every issue related to mosquito
monitoring in one fell swoop. Our experience shows that it’s better to establish
effective technologies step-by-step and integrate them over time,” says Dr
Geier. Most importantly: before mosquitoes can be analysed and counted, they
first must be attracted and trapped. When it comes to this essential detail,
Biogents leads the field. Their particularly efficient traps are used by public
health authorities and scientists worldwide. Even the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends using Biogents’ BG-Sentinel traps as
a monitoring tool in the fight against Asian tiger mosquitoes and Yellow Fever
mosquitoes. Both these mosquitoes can also transmit Dengue, the Zika virus,
and the Chikungunya viruses and are therefore considered to be particularly
dangerous. According to the CDC, BG-Sentinel traps are currently the mosquito
traps most commonly used to catch adult tiger mosquitoes.
The field trials of the BG-Counter on the Florida Keys have been very successful.
80-90% of the trapped mosquitoes are correctly identified and counted. “Other
mosquito-fighting organisations have indicated their interest in these new
counters,” says Geier.
Since February, Biogents has joined forces with Irideon SL in Spain and the
Technological Educational Institute of Crete to further develop the BG-Counter’s
sensors. The aim: to distinguish different mosquito species caught in the trap,
and to identify those that are especially problematic as potential disease
vectors. This project called REMOSIS (Remote Mosquito Situation and
Identification System) is being funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.
Researchers around the world will then be able to track carriers of disease and
invasive species even more accurately than ever before.
Reference: Pruszynski C (2016) The BG-Counter: A New Surveillance Trap that
Remotely Measures Mosquito Density in Real Time. Wing Beats 27:1, 13-18.
Link: http://wingbeats.floridamosquito.org/WingBeats/
About Biogents AG:
Biogents mosquito traps are the result of more than 16 years of research in the
behaviour of mosquitoes performed at the Institute of Zoology of the University
of Regensburg. The result is a novel, highly effective type of trap that is used in
diverse models for different regions and mosquito species.
According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the Biogents
traps are one of the most highly used mosquito traps to collect adult tiger
mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus).
Background – see press release in April:
An important aspect of successful mosquito control programs is quality control:
What mosquito species are actually present, what are their population
dynamics, and how are they actually affected by control measures? Answering
these questions is the task of mosquito monitoring. This is done with special
mosquito traps, often provided worldwide by Biogents (BG), a highly specialized
company from Regensburg, Germany. For important disease vector species,
Biogents mosquito traps are widely considered as the gold standard.
On the Florida Keys - a chain of islands at the southern tip of the Florida
peninsula - a novel and advanced Biogents trapping system for monitoring
mosquitoes is now being tested. Called the BG-Counter, it is based on a
Biogents mosquito trap with carbon dioxide as an attractant. The trap is
complemented by a sensor module, which was developed together with the
American company onVector. This module counts the captured mosquitoes
electronically via a patented infrared light barrier, and discriminates mosquitoes
from other insects or foreign particles with an accuracy of around 90 percent. At
the same time, it continuously measures additional factors that are also needed
for the assessment of future population dynamics and risks: Temperature, wind,
relative humidity, and, if necessary, other environmental parameters. The
collected data are regularly fed into the Internet. They can be accessed via a
web-based interface, which can also be used to control the BG-Counter
remotely.
To date, each of the 16 technicians of the Florida Keys Control District (FKMCD)
spends about two hours per day to monitor the islands’ mosquito populations.
This is done at a total of 266 locations. The technicians record the number of
mosquitoes that land on them within a minute before they proceed to the next
locations to repeat the procedure. The data are collected following a regulation
of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Science on mosquito
control. The aim: To apply mosquito control measures as early as possible, in
order to prevent or at least to mitigate the development and spread of large
mosquito populations. The novel BG-Counter traps simplify the data collection,
raising the efficacy and reducing the costs. "The freed resources can then be
used in a long term and more focused, specific mosquito management," says Dr
Martin Geier, Managing Director of Biogents AG in Regensburg, Germany.
The solar-powered BG-Counter is the first commercially available mosquito
trapping system that allows for a precise monitoring of mosquito population
over wide areas, in real-time, directly from the computer, and with minimum
manpower. The real-time transmission of mosquito catch data also helps to
identify activity patterns and to better understand population dynamics. The
BG-Counter will help to better monitor mosquito populations and manage their
breeding grounds. Countermeasures can be initiated earlier, more precisely, and
therefore more effectively and with less environmental impact. The real-time
data acquisition with BG-Counters also allows for a detailed assessment of how
effective control measures are. This is especially important in countries were
mosquitoes are also transmit diseases.
Supported by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, the REMOSIS Project (short for
Remote Mosquito Situation and Identification System, www.remosis.eu ) will
now develop the BG-Counter even further. The aim is a sensor module which
will be capable of distinguishing different mosquito species. This way mosquito
species that are particularly dangerous for humans, such as tiger mosquitoes,
can be targeted more precisely and more focused than before. (Tiger
mosquitoes like the Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus, or its relative, Aedes
aegypti, are vectors of yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus.) Last,
not least, the incorporation into the Internet if Things (IoT) will greatly facilitate
the joint analysis of a host of data from traps in different contexts, as well as
from other devices. This will make mosquito control and the prevention of
mosquito borne diseases more specific, environmentally friendlier, and easier
to plan.
Mosquitoes are mainly a nuisance in some countries. However, at the global
level, mosquitoes top the list of creatures that are dangerous to humans. As
carriers of many pathogens, they kill hundreds of thousands of people every
year.
