Abstract
The successful establishment of the wMel strain of Wolbachia for the control of arbovirus transmission by Aedes aegypti has been proposed and is being implemented in a number of countries. Here we describe the successful establishment of the wMel strain of Wolbachia in four sites in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. We demonstrate that Wolbachia can be successfully introgressed after transient releases of wMel-infected eggs or adult mosquitoes. We demonstrate that the approach is acceptable to communities and that Wolbachia maintains itself in the mosquito population once deployed. Finally, our data show that spreading rates of Wolbachia in the Indonesian setting are slow which may reflect more limited dispersal of Aedes aegypti than seen in other sites such as Cairns, Australia.
Highlights
There is a substantial body of evidence that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia have lower transmission potential for human arboviruses like dengue, Zika and chikungunya [1,2,3,4,5]
We show that the wMel strain of Wolbachia can be deployed successfully into mosquito populations in an area of intense dengue transmission in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Deployment was achieved through either the release of eggs or adult mosquitoes with full community support. This represents the successful first step toward a large trial to evaluate the use of Wolbachia in Indonesia to disrupt transmission of arboviruses such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya
Summary
We show that the wMel strain of Wolbachia can be deployed successfully into mosquito populations in an area of intense dengue transmission in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Deployment was achieved through either the release of eggs or adult mosquitoes with full community support. This represents the successful first step toward a large trial to evaluate the use of Wolbachia in Indonesia to disrupt transmission of arboviruses such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya.
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