The beginning of the 21st century has witnessed in addition to hugely increased transport of people and goods, important changes in climate, human behaviour & ecology that favour the development and spread of urban pests. These changes are causing pests and the diseases they may transmit not only to expand but also to spread and emerge in countries where they were previously unknown.
At this moment, most pest controllers limit their interventions to easily applicable reactive control methods using harsh chemicals in a ‘carpet bombing’ setting. However, as imposed by the European Union since 2014, all member states should have reverted to more complex proactive prevention methods, applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles, but pest control operators lack the tools to do so! The different factors affecting this shift are highlighted in Figure 1.
Avia-GIS is a leader in integrating space technology, ecology and epidemiology to develop tools that that support society to overcome one of its important health threats: the spread of Pests of Public Health importance. With support from the European Space Agency (ESA) Downstream Business Applications Program the company developed – VECMAP® – a software package for the area-wide risk mapping of vector-borne diseases. With support from this H2020 Industrial Leadership Program supporting innovation in SMEs the company is now bringing VECMAP® to the market and developing a complementary software package – SMARTSENZ® – to enable public and private pest control operators to plan and implement IPM operations and reduce the risk of vector-borne diseases (Fig. 2).
Within 5 years from now Avia-GIS will be upscaled from a company obtaining most of its income from contract research to a world leader earning recurrent revenues from the sales of its IPM software solutions. By 2023 SMARTSENZ® will be the standard software for local authorities and private pest control companies throughout Europe and Avia-GIS will be on its way to expand to other continents and be the recognised N°1 Worldwide IPM expert ensuring that pests no longer threaten your health!
