Quality control and data validation procedure in large-scale quantitative monitoring of mosquito density. The case of Aedes albopictus in Emilia-Romagna region, Italy

The risk of local transmission of chikungunya, dengue, and Zika viruses from viremic travelers arriving from affected areas is a real possibility in southern Europe, due to the large presence of the vector Aedes albopictus. The first chikungunya outbreak in Europe occurred in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy, in 2007, prompting the regional public health department to implement an Ae. albopictus monitoring and control plan. This paper presents the procedure developed for the quality control of the data collected by the regional ovitrap monitoring network. The quality control procedure consists of four successive steps; the first step is data acquisition and the second is an automatic data processing step, while skilled technicians according to specific procedures perform the third and fourth steps by checking the exact position of the ovitraps and by conducting human landing collections, respectively. The paper also presents the results of this quality control procedure applied to the data collected through the large-scale Ae. albopictus monitoring operation performed in Emilia-Romagna in 2015.