Testing the control of culicid mosquito larvae in a large cemetery using cyclopoid copepods (Crustacea)

• Grant number: 24/15749-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Gilmar Perbiche Neves
• Grantee: Bruno Prazeres
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

When it comes to prophylactic methods to combat arboviruses, which annually appear in epidemics in Brazil, the main ones are monitoring and eliminating stagnant water environments, applying insecticides and, recently, releasing mosquitoes infected with bacteria that prevent them from reproducing. Stagnant water environments create an excellent nursery for larvae of culicid mosquitoes, among which several species are vectors of diseases, and in urban environments, Aedes aegypti deserves special mention. In addition to homes, public places such as squares and cemeteries can also contain debris, vases, bowls and other cavities with stagnant water. Thus, controlling these types of places becomes challenging due to the spatial complexity and the need for temporal repetition for several applications of the intervention method. A low-cost and highly efficient alternative is the use of cyclopoid copepods, voracious predators of mosquito larvae. This project will focus on a large cemetery in São Carlos (SP) and will analyze the efficiency of using microcrustaceans to control mosquito larvae. An attempt will be made to cover the entire cemetery area, seeking environments with accumulated water. Adult copepods Mesocyclops longisetus will be deposited at a density of 5 individuals per liter, and the environments will be revisited every 10 days, being replaced if necessary (in case of a decrease in the initial density placed) and the larvae will be counted, identified by species and stage, and subsequently removed. The locations in the cemetery will be georeferenced for later statistical analyses of dispersion and efficiency of the use of copepods within the cemetery and around the cemetery within a radius of 1 km, thus observing whether there is a decrease in adult mosquitoes and oviposition, and if so, to what extent the interference made within the cemetery reaches. Qualitative and quantitative data on immature and adult mosquitoes and the population's perception of their reduction will be measured using capture traps and questionnaires, respectively. Descriptive and later comparative univariate statistical analyses, principal coordinates and generalized mixed models will be applied to the data analysis. The results of the intervention during the rainy season in the chosen environment will provide data that will be used for calculations to be applied in larger urban areas, contributing with a low-cost alternative with minimal environmental impact to the reduction of disease vectors that harm many people every year and demand public health financial resources that could be saved or allocated to other areas.