RESUMO
Mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit continue to place millions of people at risk of infection around the world. Novel methods of vector control are being developed to provide public health officials with the necessary tools to prevent disease transmission and reduce local mosquito populations. However, these methods will require public acceptance for a sustainable approach and evaluations at local settings. We present our efforts in community engagement carried out in colonias of the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas for mosquito surveillance, control, and ecological projects. Along the US-Mexico border the term colonia refers to impoverished communities that are usually inhabited by families of Hispanic heritage. The different engagements were carried out from September 2016 to February 2019; during this time, we had three distinct phases for community engagement. In Phase 1 we show the initial approach to the colonias in which we assessed security and willingness to participate; in Phase 2 we carried out the first recruitment procedure involving community meetings and house-to-house recruitment; and in Phase 3 we conducted a modified recruitment procedure based on community members' input. Our findings show that incorporating community members in the development of communication materials and following their suggestions for engagement allowed us to generate culturally sensitive recruitment materials and to better understand the social relationships and power dynamics within these communities. We were able to effectively reach a larger portion of the community and decrease the dropout rate of participants. Progress gained with building trust in the communities allowed us to convey participant risks and benefits of collaborating with our research projects. Community engagement should be viewed as a key component of any local vector control program as well as for any scientific research project related to vector control. Even in the face of budgetary constraints, small efforts in community engagement go a long way.
Assuntos
Hispânico ou Latino , Controle de Mosquitos , Animais , Humanos , México , Texas/epidemiologiaRESUMO
Tagosodes orizicolus (Muir) is the most important pest of rice in Latin America. Besides causing direct damage called hopperburn from feeding on and ovipositing in rice leaves, this insect pest also transmits rice hoja blanca virus (RHBV, Family Phenuiviridae, Genus Tenuivirus) in a persistent-propagative manner. This pathosystem can cause up to 100% yield loss in Latin American rice fields. T. orizicolus and RHBV symptoms were detected in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida rice fields in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s. However, neither has been detected in the United States since. Two outbreaks of T. orizicolus on ratoon rice occurred in the fall of 2015 and 2018 in counties southwest and south of Houston, TX. Insects were collected from ratoon rice fields by sweep net methods. Insects from the 2015 and 2018 outbreaks were tested individually and in pools of 10, respectively, for RHBV infection and the cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) gene from Delphacidae. No insects were positive for RHBV, however, all samples yielded amplicons for the CO1 gene. Furthermore, the CO1 gene from five 2015 individuals was sequenced and found to have a 100% identity to the Fer26_Argentina and 99.81% identity to the DEL074 Venezuela isolates of T. orizicolus. Five new sequences from 2015 individuals have now been deposited in GenBank. It is imperative to stay up to date on the potential invasion and establishment of this exotic pest of rice in Texas and other rice-growing regions of the United States through continued monitoring and research.