Mosquito Colony Management and Nutrition

To have effective and cost-efficient implementation of the sterile insect technique (SIT) for mosquitoes in FAO/IAEA Member States, it is critical to be able to rear large numbers of high-quality mosquitoes for sterilization and release into the field to suppress wild mosquito populations and prevent disease transmission. Rearing facilities must provide adequate nutrition for the aquatic larval (juvenile) stage growth and development, ultimately to produce high-quality adult females to perpetuate the rearing colony and high-performing sterilized males for field release. After adults emerge from the larval stage, good nutrition is also critical to maximize both female and male adult quality, but adult male and female mosquitoes have very distinct nutritional needs. Adult males eat carbohydrate-based liquid diets, typically taken from plants in the field. Adult females require both a liquid-carbohydrate diet and vertebrate blood to successfully reproduce, providing additional layers of costs and complexity for mosquito rearing facilities. To advance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of mosquito SIT programmes, we need to build a better understanding of mosquito larval and adult nutrition and translate that knowledge into actionable procedures that can be effectively adopted by mosquito rearing facilities. To achieve this goal, this new CRP will focus on addressing the following key knowledge gaps:
 
1) Can we develop and optimize larval diets to maximize the productivity of high-quality mosquitoes?
2) Can we develop and optimize adult carbohydrate sources that maximize the productivity of high-quality mosquitoes in colonies as well as to enhance the performance of released sterile male mosquitoes?
3) Can we develop and optimize treatments and procedures that maximize the ingredient quality for blood meals given to adult females to enhance the production of high-quality eggs from mosquito colonies?
4) Can we develop, optimize, and est novel artificial adult diets that can replace vertebrate blood meals in mosquito colonies?
5) Can we develop and optimize methods and devices for efficient and cost-effective delivery of larval and adult food to mosquitoes?
 
The anticipated outcome of the new CRP can be a significant enhancement of SIT implementation, that will occur when mosquito rearing facilities adopt changes in larval and adult diet composition and delivery methods that maximize the production of high-quality mosquitoes for both colony maintenance and sterile male released into the field to suppress wild mosquito populations.