Post-Control Surveillance of Triatoma infestans and Triatoma sordida with Chemically-Baited Sticky Traps

Abstract Background:Chagas disease prevention critically depends on keeping houses free of triatomine vectors. Insecticidespraying is very effective, but re-infestation of treated dwellings is commonplace. Early detection-elimination of re-infestation foci is key to long-term control; however, all available vector-detection methods have low sensitivity. Chemically-baited traps are widely used in vector and pest control-surveillance systems; here, we test this approach for Triatoma spp.detection under field conditions in the Gran Chaco.Methodology/Principal Findings:Using a repeated-sampling approach and logistic models that explicitly take detectionfailures into account, we simultaneously estimate vector occurrence and detection probabilities. We then model detectionprobabilities (conditioned on vector occurrence) as a function of trapping system to measure the effect of chemical baits.We find a positive effect of baits after three (odds ratio [OR] 5.10; 95% confidence interval [CI 95