A motorized vehicle-mounted sprayer as a new tool for Chagas disease vector control

Residual insecticide spraying still is the main tool used to suppress house infestations with Chagas disease vectors. While manual compression sprayers (MCS) have traditionally been used in Latin America, Mendoza's vector control program from Argentina introduced the use of a modified motorized vehicle-mounted sprayer (VMS) with apparent advantages over MCS. We conducted a randomized intervention trial to evaluate the effectiveness and selected components of the performance of MCS and VMS. We assessed house infestation by Triatoma infestans in 76 previously-infested houses at 0, 1, 4 and 12 months postintervention. Infestations were reduced substantially, with no significant differences between treatments. End-point infestations were restricted to peridomiciles. Although VMS required less time to complete the house spraying than MCS, both treatments had similar performance and did not suppress infestations completely. The main relative advantages of VMS were a reduced physical effort, especially under harsh field conditions, and potential gains in spray coverage per unit of time

Agronomy · Biology · Chagas disease · Control (management) · Disease control · Electrical engineering · Sprayer · Vector (molecular biology) · Vector control · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Engineering · Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences · Medicine · Trypanosoma species research and implications · Vector-Borne Animal Diseases · Virology

• House improvements and community participation in the control of Triatoma dimidiata re-infestation in Jutiapa, Guatemala

  Open Access•Carlota Monroy, Dulce Maria Bustamante et al.•Cadernos de Saude Publica•2009

  Add to list