De Vos Vector Borne Diseases Fund

‘Fonds de Vos‘ is a funding agency which aims to support vector-borne disease research at Wageningen University. It is a yearly recurring fund, offered by University Fund Wageningen and established by the generous Clemens de Vos and Ditsy de Vos-Thijssen.

Last May, my One Health Entomology colleague Jeroen Spitzen and I (Rody Blom) decided to write a proposal, named “Risky nights? Real-time monitoring of mosquito activity in the Netherlands”. In our proposal, we suggest using Biogents BG-Counters in order to monitor daily- and seasonal mosquito activity patterns. BG-Counters are devices that can be mounted on Biogents mosquito traps. These devices allow us to automatically count mosquito catches, monitor climatic data, and upload it directly to the cloud. We believe that using these BG-Counters gives us the unique opportunity to acquire valuable insights in mosquito activity patterns, the effects of climate thereon and the potential associated biting risks. Furthermore, we wish to combine the data acquired in the field via BG-Counters with mosquito activity reports submitted via the Muggenradar. On June 2nd, we heard that our proposal got accepted! With this grant, we will acquire €15.000,- for this research project. One of the primary reasons our proposal got accepted was that we would like to involve the general public via the Muggenradar. Furthermore, the Curatorium liked our suggestion to share the data collected with the BG-Counters with other OHPACT consortium members. The Curatorium suggested to involve students from other universities as well. The project will start in 2021. If anyone knows eager students willing to contribute to this project, please let me know!