Mosquito species identification accuracy of early deployed algorithms in IDX, A vector identification tool

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases continue to pose a great threat to global public health systems due to increased insecticide resistance and climate change. Accurate vector identification is crucial for effective control, yet it presents significant challenges. IDX - an automated computer vision-based device capable of capturing mosquito images and outputting mosquito species ID has been deployed globally resulting in algorithms currently capable of identifying 53 mosquito species. In this study, we evaluate deployed performance of the IDX mosquito species identification algorithms using data from partners in the Southeastern United States (SE US) and Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2023 and 2024. This preliminary assessment indicates continued improvement of the IDX mosquito species identification algorithms over the study period for individual species as well as average regional accuracy with macro average recall improving from 55.3 % [Confidence Interval (CI) 48.9, 61.7] to 80.2 % [CI 77.3, 84.9] for SE US, and 84.1 % [CI 75.1, 93.1] to 93.6 % [CI 91.6, 95.6] for PNG using a CI of 90 %. This study underscores the importance of algorithm refinement and dataset expansion covering more species and regions to enhance identification systems thereby reducing the workload for human experts, addressing taxonomic expertise gaps, and improving vector control efforts.