IVCC is excited to share the news that two more of our collaborating trials facilities in Africa have been granted Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS): the Institut Pierre Richet Vector Control Product Evaluation Centre (IPR VCPEC) in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire; and the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Amani Research Centre in Muheza, Tanzania.

IVCC has supported both facilities towards GLP certification with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including support for infrastructure improvements required for GLP compliance.

The NIMR Amani Test Facility is now the first Public Test Facility in the East African region to achieve GLP certification for vector control product evaluations.

Dr William Kisinza, Director & Chief Research Scientist at the NIMR Amani Research Centre, also said: “The work required for GLP certification wasn’t an easy process.  As a team, we have worked hard over the past seven years and are very proud of this achievement.  We are also grateful for the support and guidance provided by IVCC through this process. Our team at NIMR is very proud of being part of a larger network of collaborating trial facilities in Africa that can generate testing data on vector control products of the highest standard

NIMR Amani Research Centre has state-of-the-art laboratories and other research facilities for laboratory and semi-field trials on various vector control tools, including insecticides and insecticide-treated fabrics, used in the control of disease vectors.  The Centre currently operates 13 suites of experimental huts and 2 platforms for semi-field trials. Other experimental facilities include a set of three large semi-field structures (Mosquito Spheres), animal houses, a set of insectaries, an Insecticides Testing Facility (ITF), Molecular biology Laboratory, General/Parasitology Laboratories and Data Management and information and communications technology (ICT) Units. The Centre has conducted several community-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on major health interventions including long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) trials.

Dr Raphael N’Guessan, Head of the IPR VCPEC facility, said: “We are very happy, after so much work, to have achieved our GLP certification. We are very grateful to IVCC for its support, and especially to Alex Wright who pushed and assisted us in every way”.

IPR’s research focuses on vector-borne diseases and neglected tropical diseases. VCPEC was established as a unit within IPR to evaluate the efficacy of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and other vector control tools. VCPEC has been involved in a project to evaluate a novel house-based malaria vector control intervention called the ‘eave tube’, which combines modifications to make a house more ‘mosquito-proof’ with an innovative way of delivering insecticidal active ingredients. Eave tubes, in combination with screening of windows and doors, were found to reduce malaria transmission in a community-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in central Côte d’Ivoire between 2016 and 2019. We look forward to working with the companies to deliver high quality data on the efficacy of novel vector control products in line with the WHO pre-qualification requirements”.

Pictured are the main IPR VCPEC building, which houses insecticide spraying, insecticide testing rooms and molecular biology rooms, and the molecular biology and insecticide testing buildings at NIMR Amani Research Centre.

IVCC is delighted to take part in the Annual Conference of the Pan African Mosquito Association (PAMCA) in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia, from the 17th to 21st of September.

With a focus on reorienting surveillance and management in the context of emerging threats of disease vectors, this year’s conference will be thought-provoking and stimulating.

To find out about the work of IVCC, its partnerships, and its pipeline of innovative vector control solutions, visit the IVCC booth throughout the conference.

IVCC will also contribute to several Parallel Symposiums, Parallel Scientific Sessions, and Turbo Talks, presenting updates about specific projects and initiatives.

Partners in IVCC’s Indo-Pacific Initiative (IPI), will showcase the latest developments in novel bite prevention tools against mosquitoes in Thailand and Cambodia, on Monday 18^th (12:15-13:00*) during Parallel Turbo Talk Sessions 1-5: (Turbo Talk 1) Semi-field evaluations of the impact of novel bite prevention interventions on Anopheles minimus landing and key life history traits in Thailand and (Tubo Talk 2) Field evaluation of novel mosquito bite prevention tools against Anopheles mosquitoes in Cambodia.

 Steps in the development, registration, and deployment of a new insecticide chemistry to help tackle the growing threat of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors in sub-Saharan Africa is another important topic at PAMCA 2023. IVCC team member Christen Fornadel will present on Defining a preliminary discriminating concentration for use in broflanilide susceptibility monitoring during the rollout of VECTRON^TM T500 in sub-Saharan Africa​, during Symposium 8, organised by IVCC’s partner Mitsui Chemicals Crop & Life Solutions. It takes place on Monday 18^th from 16:00*, in Ballroom 3.

 On the second day of the conference, IVCC project partners will also contribute to Parallel Scientific Session 7 (10:20* to 12:00, Ballroom 2) on Vetor Surveillance: Residual bio-efficacy of Attractive Targeted sugar  Bait stations targeting malaria vectors  during seasonal  deployment  in Western province of Zambia. You can also catch a Turbo Talk on Blood meal sources of primary and secondary vectors and malaria positivity rate in a malaria endemic area of Western Province, Zambia, during the Parallel Turbo Talk Session 7 from 12:15 onward in Ballroom 2.

Also on the second day of the conference, don’t miss the poster on: Evidence from an observational trial of dual–active ingredient nets indicates a comparatively higher effect on resistant mosquito entomological indices in Nigeria (ABS-414), presented by Adedapo Adeogun (Nigerian Institute of Medical Research). It showcases the work by The New Nets Project to evaluate the impact of dual–active ingredient (AI) bed nets (ITNs) on pyrethroid resistant vector populations in Nigeria.

Find out more about 9^th PAMCA Annual Conference and Exhibition online, including the full conference programme, details about keynote speakers, the event’s sponsors, and exhibitors.

*All times shown are given in East Africa Time, the local time zone (Ethiopia is GMT+2h).

Given the breadth of vector control-related literature, we are unable to include all relevant work. These updates are intended to focus primarily on Anopheles biology and a subset of control topics with global relevance. Any views expressed in the updates do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of IVCC. In many cases, we directly quote sections of published work. Mention of trade names or commercial products is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by IVCC or its funders.

IVCC’s External Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) is looking for experts in entomology and in epidemiology.

This call is open to those with either:

• suitable qualifications/training and extensive experience in the entomological evaluation (laboratory and field trials) of vector control products (ITNs, IRS formulations or other products).
• suitable qualifications/training and extensive experience in the epidemiological evaluation of vector control products (ITNs, IRS formulations or other products).

The ESAC provides expert specialist technical assessments of IVCC’s portfolio of products, including project selection, transition, and termination. They provide advice to the IVCC management team during periodic reviews of the projects. Membership of the ESAC is through nomination of candidates with the required expertise.

For full details about this opportunity and how to apply, please download the appropriate supporting document.

Applications close on Friday 28^th July 2023.

IVCC has great pleasure in announcing that the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) trials facility has been granted Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) in June 2023.

Based in the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, the CSRS facility is a longstanding collaborating partner of IVCC. CSRS help IVCC and our industry partners to evaluate new malaria vector control products by conducting studies against local resistant mosquito populations in the environments where they will actually be used. They have also generated product efficacy data for manufacturers for regulatory submissions, including WHO Prequalification Unit Vector Control Product Assessment Team (PQT/VCP) dossier submissions.

IVCC has supported the CSRS trials facility towards GLP certification with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This included support for the essential infrastructure improvements and equipment purchases necessary for full GLP compliance. Pictured is CSRS’s new field trials facility, built at their experimental hut site in Tiassalé. In addition to this, training was provided to key facility staff through participation in GLP workshops and specialist courses. IVCC’s support has also helped further strengthen the capacity for malaria vector control research at CSRS.

Professor Benjamin Koudou, CSRS Director of Research and Development, said: “This tremendous achievement by the team will be key for CSRS visibility within Côte d’Ivoire and abroad. The GLP certification of our facility will help further build the trust that companies, malaria control implementation programmes and other organisations have in our research. We anticipate that this will increase the demand at CSRS for conducting laboratory and field trials in conjunction with the control of malaria and neglected tropical diseases. We are planning now to implement the same quality management facility in our molecular biology laboratory.”

IVCC congratulates Professor Inza Koné (test facility manager), Professor Koudou, Dr Edi Constant (Coordinator of GLP facility), Lisro Emmanuelle (CSRS quality manager), Laurence Yao (GLP Project manager), and all the facility staff on this significant achievement.