Development of a Community-Driven Mosquito Surveillance Program for Vectors of La Crosse Virus to Educate, Inform, and Empower a Community

Abstract

The fields of entomology, geospatial science, and science communication are understaffed in many areas, resulting in poor community awareness and heightened risks of vector-borne diseases. This is especially true in East Tennessee, where La Crosse encephalitis (LACE) causes pediatric illness each year. In response to these problems, we created a community engagement program that includes a yearlong academy for secondary STEM educators in the 6–12 grade classroom. The objectives of this program were to support inquiry-driven classroom learning to foster student interest in STEM fields, produce community-driven mosquito surveillance, and enhance community awareness of LACE. We trained educators in medical entomology, geospatial science, and science communication, and they incorporated those skills into lesson plans for a mosquito oviposition experiment that tested hypotheses developed in the classroom. Here, we share results from the first two years of the MEGA:BITESS academy, tailored for our community by having students ask questions directly related to Aedes mosquito oviposition biology and La Crosse encephalitis. In year one, we recruited 17 educators to participate in the project, and 15 of those educators returned in year two. All participating educators completed the academy, conducted the oviposition experiment, and informed over 400 students about a variety of careers and disciplines for their students. Here, we present a community-based program that helps to address the problems associated with long-term mosquito surveillance, health and science education and communication, career opportunities, and the community needs of Appalachia, as well as the initial data on the effectiveness of two years of an educator-targeted professional-development program.

Community efforts to monitor and manage Aedes mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) with ovitraps and litter reduction in east Tennessee

“…We aimed to collaborate with educators in east Tennessee to develop a program that would simultaneously increase community awareness of the locally important LACV disease, foster high-impact learning and enthusiasm for students in STEM courses, and produce mosquito surveillance data that would be useful for hypothesis-driven inquiries [ 37 ]. In this study, we found that educators and their students in our program can collect Aedes egg abundance data that closely reflects data collected by our entomology laboratory.…”

“…In 2019, 17 educators from 13 schools in six different counties participated. In 2020, 15 of those educators from 12 schools in six counties returned to participate in the program’s second year [ 37 ]. In 2021, 13 educators (nine returning and four new) from 12 schools in seven counties participated in the program.…”

“…The mosquito collection protocols used in this study were described in detail by Trout Fryxell et al [ 37 ] and are described briefly here. The same collection protocol was used in each year and objective of this study.…”

“…The other schools continued with the 2019 egg holding protocol throughout the 2020 collection period. Because storing eggs in plastic significantly increased the success of rearing mosquitoes from eggs to adulthood [ 37 ], all study participants used plastic WhirlPak bags for egg paper storage in 2021.…”

“…In 2019, we initiated a community health and science-based engagement program [ 37 ] to enhance LACV surveillance and the community awareness of LACV disease in east Tennessee, where LACV infections have been reported annually since 1997 [ 14 , 18 , 26 ]. Our program, called MEGA:BITESS (Medical Entomology and Geospatial Analysis: Bringing Innovation to Teacher Education and Surveillance Studies), trains science educators from middle and high schools in east Tennessee in the field of medical entomology.…”