Dear Colleagues,

Among the major vectors of human diseases, mosquitoes are one of the most devastating ones. Urbanization, globalization, and climate change have further accelerated the spread of the insect vectors and outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, and malaria which represent a major threat for  for public health worldwide over last few decades. In addition, the use of insecticides, a common control method used for mosquito control, has shown a negative impact on human health and the environment, and has often led to an increase in the frequency of insect resistance to insecticides. In the light of these problems, there is a need for innovative and sustainable approaches for controlling mosquito vector populations, such as the sterile insect technique (SIT), to improve human health by preventing diseases transmitted by these important pests. Increasing human health through improved vector control is the keystone of the World Health Organization (WHO) 2017–2030 Global Vector Control Response program.

The SIT package for mosquitoes is under intense development and evaluation by the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, and its Member States. The SIT is an innovative and sustainable insect pest control method that involves the mass-rearing and radiation-induced sterilization of a specific target pest. This approach relies on the systematic area-wide release of sterile insects over infested areas, where males mate with wild females resulting in no offspring, consequently reducing the pest population. Integrated with other control methods, the SIT has had success in controlling several high-profile insect pests, most notably fruit flies, moths, tsetse flies, screwworm, and is more recently being applied in pilot projects against mosquito vectors of diseases. The benefits of using this technology include: a significant reduction in crop and livestock production losses; protection of the horticultural and livestock industries through prevention of pest introductions; providing conditions for commodity exports to high value markets without quarantine restrictions; protecting and creating jobs; significant reduction in production and human health costs; and environmental protection through a reduced use of chemical insecticides.

Operational use of the SIT against insect pests continues to reveal technical challenges in areas where new technologies are essential for operational viability. Regarding the mosquito SIT package, which is under development, the technologies must be applicable to all applications (i.e., target mosquito species) and useful in all operational environments. Among the key issues to be solved are the handling, packing, transporting, and releasing procedures of sterile males to minimize any potential impacts on survival, dispersal, and sexual performance after release. Effective methods for male population mosquito monitoring are also essential to assess the progress and impact the SIT programme.

An SIT pilot project and later a programme at an operational scale will require several million adult male mosquitoes to be transported and released in the target sites, after being previously sterilized, marked, chilled, and compacted for easy handling and packing, with minimal detrimental impacts on male fitness. The chilling process needed for compacting mosquitoes at suitable high densities without damaging their fitness, requires the use of specialized containers and appropriate cooling systems to ensure a continuous cold chain between the rearing facility and the release site. Aerial release of sterile males, in some cases, can be the most suitable alternative, although it must comply under certain circumstances with specific airspace regulations, especially over large urban areas. For that purpose, drone-based release tools need to be developed and validated in open field conditions.

Alongside release methodologies, improved male-based population monitoring is also essential to the successful evaluation of suppression programmes. Traditionally, the tools used to monitor mosquito populations were designed to attract predominantly female mosquitoes. However, male-specific monitoring tools are critical to the improvement of SIT field applications by allowing operators to better measure sterile male quality and programmatic success. Such monitoring systems will likely include male-specific and possibly species-specific trap designs, attractants, as well as the use of automated surveillance tools. In SIT programmes, the continuous collection of entomological information is vital to providing real-time operational feedback to programme managers and to ensure timely decision making.

In this context, we are pleased to invite you to submit papers for consideration in this Special Issue focused on the handling, transport, release, and monitoring of male mosquitoes as components of the SIT package to control Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes. This Special Issue aims to identify optimal conditions for the chilling, marking, packaging, and transporting of sterile mosquitoes, as well as to explore how these procedures can impact on the sterile male’s quality. It also seeks to explore different approaches to the release of sterile male mosquitoes in a controlled, traceable, and documented manner over urban and rural large areas, with the ability to target specific areas whilst maintaining a high quality of released insects. Lastly, this special issue also aims to identify advances in male-based population monitoring tools for use in the evaluation of an AW-IPM programme with an SIT component to improve the evaluation of male performance after release. Our objective is to publish at least 10 articles, with the Special Issue tentatively printed in book form if this number is reached.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Effective male trapping systems for mosquito monitoring in SIT projects
• Marking techniques for sterile male mosquitoes at operational level
• The impact of chilling, packing, and shipping on male quality indicators and its interaction.
• Release methods and devices for ground and aerial releases of mosquitoes.
• Pilot trials using the SIT against mosquitoes

Dr. Brian J. Johnson
Dr. Hervé Christophe Bossin
Dr. Maylen Gomez Pacheco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Aedes
• Anopheles
• sterile insect technique
• shipment
• packaging
• chilled adults
• quality control
• drone releases
• insect traps