Using Citizen Science to Enhance Surveillance of Aedes aegypti in Arizona, 2015–17

Abstract

Vector surveillance is an essential component of vector-borne disease prevention, but many communities lack resources to support extensive surveillance. The Great Arizona Mosquito Hunt (GAMH) was a collaborative citizen science project conducted during 2015-17 to enhance surveillance for Aedes aegypti in Arizona. Citizen science projects engage the public in scientific research in order to further scientific knowledge while improving community understanding of a specific field of science and the scientific process. Participating schools and youth organizations across the state conducted oviposition trapping for 1-4 wk during peak Ae. aegypti season in Arizona and returned the egg sheets to collaborating entomologists for identification. During the 3-year program, 120 different schools and youth organizations participated. Few participants actually collected Aedes eggs in their traps in 2015 or 2017, but about one-third of participants collected eggs during 2016, including 3 areas that were not previously reported to have Ae. aegypti. While relatively few new areas of Ae. aegypti activity were identified, GAMH was found to be a successful method of engaging citizen scientists. Future citizen science mosquito surveillance projects might be useful to further define the ecology and risk for vector-borne diseases in Arizona.

Designing a Citizen Science Project for Forest Landscapes: A Case from Hofmann Forest in Eastern North Carolina

“…Projects that are co-created integrate both types of researchers to satisfy the duties of every step in the scientific process (e.g., Grassroots Project (Ramirez-Andreotta et al, 2015)). Collaborative projects are developed by professional researchers and give responsibility to non-professional researchers to collect data, analyze the data, and share the findings (e.g., The Great Arizona Mosquito Hunt (Tarter et al, 2019)). Contributory projects, the most common of the project types, are designed by professional researchers.…”

The Potential Role of School Citizen Science Programs in Infectious Disease Surveillance: A Critical Review

“…Recruitment and sustainability of the project was difficult over the three-year study period. While participation in the program was higher in the first two years, teachers noted that the students had moderate or high interest in the project and student engagement increased in the final year [ 40 ].…”

“…At Bowling Green State University, students isolated bacteria, but Davis et al did not comment on data quality and student engagement. However, they did conclude that students can contribute to important research through CS [ 40 ]. In Spain, the SWI protocol was adjusted for high school students.…”

“…Secondly, involving schools in research projects provides more massive datasets that are otherwise impossible to compile [ 49 ]. A key advantage of these CS-collected datasets is their diversity in variables (e.g., locations and time points) that are otherwise hard to sample or missed with traditional research methods [ 40 , 47 , 72 , 73 ]. For instance, using CS as an additional monitoring tool can aid in achieving the SDGs [ 74 ].…”

“…While popular epidemiology is a step towards involving citizens with public health issues, popular epidemiology and CS methods have been used sparingly for infectious disease surveillance. For surveillance, some studies have utilized CS for vector-borne disease surveillance, specifically for mosquitoes and ticks, to monitor vector abundances and distributions to predict potential viral spread [ 40 , 59 , 60 , 86 , 87 ]. Beyond surveillance, CS in public health is uncommon.…”