University of Poonch, Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
Abstract: Mosquito-borne diseases pose a huge pressure on health department around the globe. Among these diseases, dengue and zika are the most important because of the unavailability of their vaccine and global dispersal of the Aedes spp. Surveillance of these species is crucial to combat the threats of associated deadly diseases and is the worldwide adopted strategy. To date, there is no record of these species in the district Poonch. Ovitraps surveillance is one of the most important and cost effective tool to detect the presence of Aedes spp. Therefore, in this study ovitraps were placed on different localities of district Poonch around the houses, internal and out-of-doors. Internal refers to those structures under a roof, while are those out of doors mean outside the roof, however within the immediate surrounding area of premises. Collected specimens were raised in the laboratory following the standard protocols, and were recognized up to species, using the available keys and literature. The Ovitrap index (OI) was calculated for each locality. Results showed that the maximum eggs were collected in the Aug-19 (13090). There were strong positive correlation between rainfall, temperature and humidity and total number of eggs. This study provides the evidences of presences of Aedes species in the selected areas and demands for future studies regarding the surveillance and control of Aedes species.
