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. 2021 Jan 27;12(2):110.
doi: 10.3390/insects12020110.

Reduction in Egg Fertility of Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes in Greece Following Releases of Imported Sterile Males

Georgios Balatsos  1 , Arianna Puggioli  2 , Vasileios Karras  1 , Ioanna Lytra  1 , George Mastronikolos  3 , Marco Carrieri  2 , Dimitrios P Papachristos  1 , Marco Malfacini  2 , Angeliki Stefopoulou  1 , Charalampos S Ioannou  3 , Fabrizio Balestrino  2 , Jérémy Bouyer  4 , Dušan Petrić  5 , Igor Pajović  6 , Apostolos Kapranas  1 , Nikos T Papadopoulos  3 , Panagiotis G Milonas  1 , Romeo Bellini  2 , Antonios Michaelakis  1
Affiliations

Reduction in Egg Fertility of Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes in Greece Following Releases of Imported Sterile Males

Georgios Balatsos et al. Insects. .

Abstract

Aedes albopictus, an invasive mosquito species, is currently well established in many European countries, posing high risks to human health. A preliminary trial using repetitive releases of irradiated sterile male mosquitoes was designed, implemented and evaluated for the first time in Greece. The main scope of this trial was to investigate the efficacy of sterile insect technique (SIT) on wild population egg hatch rate in Greece using mass-produced sterile male mosquitoes from another country (Italy). The study was conducted in Vravrona area, close to Athens International Airport (Attica Region). The number of eggs laid in ovitraps was similar in all intervention and control plots. However, a significant reduction in egg hatch rate was recorded in the SIT plot in comparison with both control plots starting two weeks after the first release. This trial validates the logistics (transportation, releases handling and monitoring) as a major step towards implementing efficient, environmentally safe control approaches as an additional tool against the invasive Aedes species in Greece and more widely in Europe.

Keywords: Asian tiger mosquito; egg hatch rate; mass production; mosquito control; sterile insect technique; transportation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Magnified map showing the three plots: sterile insect technique (SIT), control A and control B. Dots (red, yellow and blue) on the plots indicate the positions of ovitraps. The standard operational procedures for ovitrap field management are available in Bellini et al., 2020 [12].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Weekly average number of eggs per ovitrap in control A, control B and the SIT area. Each plot had 15 ovitraps (3 traps/ha). Box and whisker plots present the median value (central bold line), the quartiles (box), the 95% percentiles (horizontal bars) and the outliers (dots).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Weekly proportion of egg hatching in control A, control B and SIT plots. Box and whisker plots present the median value (central bold line), the quartiles (box), the 95% percentiles (horizontal bars) and the outliers (dots).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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