Post-Control Surveillance of Triatoma infestans and Triatoma sordida with Chemically-Baited Sticky Traps

ANTONIETA ROJAS DE ARIAS; FERNANDO ABAD-FRANCH; NIDIA ACOSTA; ELSA LÓPEZ; NILSA GONZÁLEZ; EDUARDO ZERBA; GUILLERMO TARELLI; HÉCTOR M. MASUH

PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2012 vol. 6 p. 1 - 10

1935-2735

Background: Chagas disease prevention critically depends on keeping houses free of triatomine vectors. Insecticide spraying is very effective, but re-infestation of treated dwellings is commonplace. Early detection-elimination of re- infestation foci is key to long-term control; however, all available vector-detection methods have low sensitivity. Chemically- baited traps are widely used in vector and pest control-surveillance systems; here, we test this approach for Triatoma spp. detection under field conditions in the Gran Chaco. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a repeated-sampling approach and logistic models that explicitly take detection failures into account, we simultaneously estimate vector occurrence and detection probabilities. We then model detection probabilities (conditioned on vector occurrence) as a function of trapping system to measure the effect of chemical baits. We find a positive effect of baits after three (odds ratio [OR] 5.10; 95% confidence interval [CI95] 2.59–10.04) and six months (OR 2.20, CI95 1.04–4.65). Detection probabilities are estimated at p