Overview of Personal Protection Measures Through the Innovative

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and timing of its use; and the alterability in storage and the non-dangerousness if it must

be disposed of must be evaluated in the process of registration. These studies are used to

decide whether a product and its intended uses meet the scientific and safety standard and

whether specific use restrictions are necessary for the safe use of the product.

3.7

MEASURING THE ENTOMOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF TEXTILES

For preliminary outcomes, in order to better investigate the efficacy of repellent fab-

rics, and in the absence of precise measurement protocols of efficacy, some attempts have

been made in the past two years in order to establish a valid methodology for efficacy mea-

surement of repellent textiles. These evaluations, carried out in the open field in Italy, 2019

and in the laboratory in the United States, 2020 have given interesting indications about

the performance of samples carefully tested. The methodology used are those applied for

the efficacy tests of topical repellents that are applied directly to the skin. The evidence

resulting from these efforts are bellow reported.

3.7.1

Open field, Italian Mosquito Control Association Alessandria Italy, 2019

Following the activities carried out in the last 2 years which include laboratory tests,

semi field tests and field tests of textiles are compulsory tentative to measure the efficacy of

a certain sample. There are not established protocols to measure the efficacy of textiles to

repel arthropods. Thus, during an evaluation it is necessary to reduce as much as possible

the variables that may affect the results. These factors include but are not limited to: target

species, number of species present during a test, age of species, climate pattern factors

and light intensity. A field pilot study was set up in 2019 intended for the preparation of a

well-designed protocol for the evaluation of effectiveness of the samples of textiles.

With regards to the aims of the COST Action project titled; Investigation and Math-

ematical Analysis of Avant-garde Disease Control via Mosquito Nano-Tech-Repellents, a

field test of the efficacy of nano- and micro-particles used in textile has been performed.

These materials are prepared to release repellents at a known rate, in order to undergo a

protocolled efficacy studies, set up by personnel of the Mosquito Control Team of Alessan-

dria. Such Avant-Garde measures carried out within technically sound strategies can help

to reduce disease burden of vector borne diseases.

Cotton fabrics treated by different repellents prepared using the Pad-dry impregnation

system, underwent a field efficacy test in the Province of Alessandria Italy in August 2019.

The location was the Sport Field of Alluvioni Cambio, Province of Alessandria Piedmont

Region Via Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour, 25, 15040 Alluvioni Cambio AL. Every year,

in this location is held the famous “Sagra del Sedano” (Cosine Festival of Celery). This

location is located a few kilometers from the southern banks of the Po river and from Eu-

rope’s largest rice paddies, vast areas of wetlands. These rice fields provide ideal habitats

for the breeding of several mosquito species specifically, several generations of Ochlero-

tatus caspius, Culex spp and Anopheles maculipennis. Ochlerotatus caspius can migrate

up to 30 km or more from the breeding source and create a heavy infestation in Alluvioni