Optimal deployment of Wolbachia for dengue control

The principal goal is to facilitate affordable and sustainable, locally- focused and locally-managed dengue control programmes, by releasing Ae. aegypti mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia maternally inherited symbionts to block virus transmission. The Wolbachia strain used in Ae. aegypti will be wAlbB, together with selective targeting of Ae. albopictus with other strains. Strategies will be tested in contrasting Southeast Asian, South American and African settings, to ensure broad applicability to dengue control within an operational framework. Our primary aims will be to identify mosquito backgrounds that minimize Wolbachia fitness costs; explore novel combinations of male-biased releases for suppression and replacement of Ae. aegypti and Aedes albopictus; develop guidelines for maintaining release stock quality; develop attract-and-kill traps that preferentially target wildtype mosquitoes; develop low-cost, high-throughput Wolbachia and insecticide resistance monitoring methodologies based on LAMP technology; and carry out economic evaluations to determine the optimal approaches for roll-out. The results will help improve and promote the use of wAlbB as the Wolbachia strain of choice for use in dengue control in high temperature settings, although the data obtained will also be directly relevant to other programmes using different Wolbachia strains.