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The research, in which the UMU group 'Basic and Applied Zoology to management and conservation' has collaborated, presents evidence that citizen activity is essential to detect the presence of mosquitoes transmitting diseases such as Zika, Dengue or the Chikunguña.
It is the first time that a magazine with the prestige of Nature Communications has equated the effectiveness of 'citizen scientists' to detect the presence of mosquitoes with that of experts.
Although, as Francisco Collantes Alcaraz, a biologist at the University of Murcia, points out, the scientific part is always needed to corroborate risk scenarios.
This research of the universities of Murcia, Zaragoza and Pompeu Fabra together with the Center for Ecological Research and Forest Applications (CREAF) and the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), shows that non-specialized people can contribute to supply the lack of staff of many of these projects.
The 'MosquitoAlert' platform was developed next to the study.
In it, users can include images of the specimens that are found in different parts of the world.
Through the application indicate the exact location of the copy and scientists can move to set traps and obtain samples.
"The advantage of the project is not only the early detection, but the saving of time, we only have to go to the places where it has signs, since funds are allocated to make a systematic search," explains Collantes.
With this initiative the participants can alert of the presence of two species of mosquito: Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, known as tiger mosquito and yellow fever, respectively.
The tiger mosquito can not be eradicated, only perform actions to reduce it.
In this sense, citizen participation allows to cover a larger area and solve deficiencies.
The researcher highlights that one of the problems they face is "the resistance of the rulers to accept that the presence of the tiger mosquito is like that of rats or cockroaches, becoming a sanitary and budgetary problem".
Likewise, the transmission of information between the inhabitants and the administration is indispensable.
The scientist emphasizes that "if people do not warn, we can go on doing jobs, but the spotlights turn into a snowball, the tiger mosquito grows very fast and we must try to stop the spotlights as soon as they appear".
Another obstacle is the legal measures that make access to certain areas impossible.
The biologist sets as example certain private properties that can not be accessed and end up becoming a focus of epidemiological risk.
To solve it, in areas like Catalonia and the Valencian Community there are proliferating municipal ordinances where there are even sanctions.
The teacher specifies that "in the Region, the only ordinance that exists is in Mazarrón for the communities of owners".
Spain was affected for the first time in a case of tiger mosquito in 2004 in Barcelona.
Since then, this species has continued to expand throughout the peninsula.
In the Region of Murcia there are many affected municipalities and some of them with great density.
"Recently cases have been found in Madrid and Seville, although for a couple of years there were suspicions and they had been detected in the application, with their current density, they can be found inside the houses or in commercial bazaars in Murcia" says the investigator.
On the other hand, the application that started as 'atrapaeltigre.com' has expanded its execution territory to places like Hong Kong, incorporating Chinese as a language for the web.
It is also expected that it will become increasingly common to find users from Latin America where the language barrier does not exist.
Despite the success, the 'app' encounters some barriers, since in this type of initiatives they are belittled for not considering the information as 'reliable'.
For all this work, recently, the team of Barcelona with which they collaborate, composed of John RB Palmer, Aitana Oltra and Frederic Bartumeus have received the 'Ciutat de Barcelona 2017' award from the category of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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