The US Army Medical Materiel Development Agency (USAMMDA) has issued a requirement for Improved Flying Vector Trap Systems (IFVTS) to conduct surveillance of flying arthropods capable of vectoring diseases of military significance.
The IFVTS must trap specific, targeted, flying arthropod vectors in austere environments, as an aid in identifying disease threats to DOD personnel.
IFVTS need not trap all vectors on every mission, but it must trap the target species appropriate for each assigned mission. The trap must be durable and sufficiently light for one-person operation and transport in vehicles consistent with combat missions.
Insect traps are used by preventive medicine personnel to conduct surveillance of flying arthropods capable of vectoring diseases of military significance. Surveillance is critical to conducting risk assessments of vector-borne disease threats, to vector control operations, and to assessing the effectiveness of vector control operations.
The Armed Forces Pest Management Board (AFPMB) has identified the need for a thorough evaluation of current traps due to multiple deficiencies in the status quo and to focus on future designs (e.g. modifications and improvements) that collect larger sample sizes.
The system must maximize the number of militarily relevant vectors trapped. At a minimum, species to be trapped shall include the vectors for malaria, leishmaniasis, and dengue, which requires both day and night trapping capabilities. The list of desired militarily relevant vectors includes species in the following genera: Aedes, Anopheles, Culex, Mansonia, Lutzomyia, and Phlebotomus.
Further details are available via Solicitation Number: W81XWH15IFVTSDA. The response deadline is May 27, 2015.
