Establishment of a large semi-field system for experimental study of African malaria vector ecology and control in Tanzania

Table 1 Previous and current location, size, target species and research aims of Semi-Field Systems (SFS) established for mosquito vector research.

Country	Year*	Dimensions (m)	Number of units	Mosquito Species	Purpose	Refs
Albania	1939	10 × 5 × 6	1	Various European anophelines	Basic ecological studies	[37]
India – Madras	1942	12.2 6.1 × 3.05	3	An. culifacies	Basic ecological studies, evaluation of genetic control strategies for population suppression	[38]
India – Delhi	1976	5.6 × 3.3 × 2.1	1	Ae. aegypti Cx. Fatigans		[35, 39, 40]
Kenya	2002	11.4 × 7.1 × 4.4	7	An. gambiae s.s.	Basic ecological studies, vector-malaria parasite interactions, evaluation of novel trap designs and repellents	[33, 42–48]
Thailand	2003	10 × 10 × 4	1	Ae. aegypti	Basic ecological studies	[90]
Tanzania – Muheza	2003	12.2 × 8.2 × 4.6	3	An. gambiae s.s Cx. quinquefasciatus	Evaluation of trapping methods, training and basic ecological studies	No publ.
Sudan	2006	18 × 8 × 2.75	3	An. arabiensis	Fitness of sterilized males, basic ecological studies	[65]
Tanzania – Ifakara	2007	29.8 × 21 × 7.1	4	An. gambiae s.s An. arabiensis	Basic ecological studies, evaluation of trapping methods and repellents	This paper
Australia	2008	17 × 9 × 4.3	2	Ae. aegypti	Assessment of biocontrol strategy using Wolbachia, basic ecological studies	No publ.
Austria	TBC	25 × 10 × 3	TBD	An. arabiensis	Research on Sterile Insect Technique	No publ.

Year refers to the time when the first research publication from these facilities was published, or year of establishment in cases where no published references to these facilities are yet available ('TBC' = to be constructed).

ISSN: 1475-2875