Minimum Information for Reporting Arthropod Infection Studies
Lead Research Organisation:
The Pirbright Institute
Department Name: Entomology
Abstract
UK (before EEID 2018 in Glasgow) and US (VectorBiTE & ASTMH meetings).
Organisations
Publications
Wilson AJ
(2018)
Reproducibility and relevance in insect-arbovirus infection studies.
in Current opinion in insect science
| Description | Experimental infections of insects with arboviruses are performed to achieve a variety of objectives but principally to draw inferences about the potential role of field populations in transmission or to explore the molecular basis of vector?pathogen interactions. The design of such studies determines both their reproducibility and the extent to which their results can be extrapolated to natural environments, and is constrained by the resources available. This project examined the ways in which this challenge can be overcome, both in terms of the logistics of carrying out studies and in understanding the degree to which laboratory-based studies can be used to infer transmission of arboviruses in the field. We accomplished this through the use of dedicated meetings, an online questionnaire sent to a wide range of scientists in this field and dedicated interviews with scientists at a variety of levels. |
| Exploitation Route | The results provide a framework for designing experiments to demonstrate the ability of insects to transmit arboviruses and how to report findings. As such they will be used to improve both technical aspects of vector competence studies and also assist in enabling others to interpret the results, including deciding the weight to give to them during policy decision making. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Healthcare |
| URL | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214574518300622?via%3Dihub |
| Description | Workshop 1: Minimum Information for Reporting Arthropod Infection Studies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was held as part of the VectorBiTE RCN annual meeting at Asilomar in CA. Attendance was roughly 60 people, mostly users of data resulting from experimental arthropod infection studies or arthropod ecological datasets. AW gave a presentation describing the objectives of the grant and then we formed breakout groups to discuss potential factors to report and their importance for different categories of users. The feedback was used to review and update the draft standards document before the second workshop as ASTMH's Trop Med meeting in New Orleans in October. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Workshop 2: Minimum Information for Reporting Arthropod Infection Studies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was organised in collaboration with members of the ASTMH's Advisory Committee on Arthropod-borne Viruses (ACAV) at the start of the 2018 Trop Med annual meeting and was advertised via social media and society and project mailing lists. Around 30 people attended, mostly from the US but with representation from Asia, Europe and South America, and a mixture of senior academics, junior faculty and students. AW gave a brief introduction to the objectives of the workshop and AW, assisted by LH (a postdoc at Pirbright), helped participants pilot the questionnaire before its formal launch. Feedback was positive and used to refine the questionnaire before it was launched in November. As a result of specific points raised in the feedback, the survey was translated into French and Spanish and these versions were launched simultaneously to support involvement by a broader audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Workshop 3: Minimum Information for Reporting Arthropod Infection Studies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was organised during the biennial UK VBD meeting in Norwich to improve awareness of the survey and increase completion. A short presentation was given by LH, a postdoc at Pirbright who has been assisting with the development of the questionnaire and standards documentation (as AW is leaving Pirbright in December) and then breakout groups formed to discuss particular challenges and any suggested changes as well as pathways to increasing the chances of uptake of the resulting guidelines. The feedback was recorded and will influence the resulting report/manuscript. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |