Arthropod colony maintenance and evaluation of insecticides and repellents performed to the IRTA-CReSA expertise at the request of the customer.
Establishment and maintenance of arthropod colonies
- Biosafety level 2 insectarium facilities for autochthonous species to perform insecticide and repellent tests
- Biosafety level 3 insectarium facilities for both exotic and autochthonous species for vector competence studies, pathogens transmission blocking strategies studies and others.
Laboratory evaluation of insecticides
- Susceptibility and resistance laboratory test conducted with the World Health Organization (WHO) or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conditions.
Laboratory evaluation of repellents
- Skin laboratory test with both technical grade material and commercial formulations, using WHO or EPA conditions.
Examples of previous achievements
- De novo establishment of mosquito colonies (genus Culex, Aedes and Anopheles) and Culicoides, for both exotic and autochthonous species.
- Breeding of arthropods and secure manipulation under biosafety level 2 (BSL2) laboratories and BSL3 for exotic species.
- Available colonies for albopictus, Ae. aegypti, Cx. pipiens and Culicoides nubeculosus.
- Insecticide susceptibility tests (WHO) for mosquitoes and Culicoides.
- Skin repellent tests (WHO) on human volunteers for mosquitoes.
