Dengue fever is one of the most serious
mosquito -borne
infectious diseases in the tropical world, causing substantial
human morbidity and
mortality , yet there is no specific
treatment till now, and the main
measures preventing
dengue fever include applying
pesticide to kill
adult vector
mosquitos and removing
standing water to prevent the
breeding of
mosquitoes etc. Appropriate uses of such approaches can reduce
dengue epidemic risk via reducing
mosquito density. In fact,
vector control using
insecticides is the most common
method to prevent and control
mosquito-borne disease transmission . Nevertheless, recent
research has shown that
Aedes albopictus and
Aedes aegypti , the two key vectors for
dengue fever transmission , have rapidly developed high resistance to the most commonly used
adult insecticide pyrethroid (deltamethrin and
permethrin ) and larvicide
organophosphate (
temephos ). Therefore, it is of great significance to obtain a new
drug with longer-term
efficacy to prevent
dengue virus transmission .
Pesticides currently used act on
adult stage of
mosquitoes , typically applying to the
environment where
mosquito bites (on
humans ) occur, and very few target on
egg or juvenile stages of the
mosquitoes in the
water environment .
Calcium cyanamide (CaCN2), widely used as a
fertilizer in many different settings, was recently shown to have potential to prevent tropical
diseases by eliminating or inhibiting the
growth and development of intermediate hosts. The main compounds of
calcium cyanamide (CaCN2) are CaCN2 (50%- 60%) and
calcium oxide (15%). The representative products of
calcium cyanamide (CaCN2) are PERLKA® from
Germany and ROEBON® from
China . CaCN2 has recently been recognized to have the fungicidal effect on the pathogens of the
soil borne
diseases and addition of CaCN2 could benefit the thermophilic phase and the
composting could quickly reach the sanitary standard and
will contribute to solve the
feces disposal problems. According to our team's long-term investigation and
research , we found that ROEBON® (50% CaCN2) can be used to eliminate Oncomelania and effectively control the spread of
schistosomiasis . In the latest
research , we have confirmed that 10 mg/L CaCN2 (20 mg/L ROEBON®) can completely inhibit the emergence of
mosquito larvae and the
population growth from the perspective of inhibiting development and the
efficacy can lasts for three months.
Calcium cyanamide is a good candidate
drug to control
mosquito -borne
infectious diseases transmission , especiallly for
dengue fever prevention. In 2014, Scientific Committee on
Health and
Environmental Risks in European Commission promoted preliminary
opinion on potential
risks to human health and the
environment from the utilization of
calcium cyanamide as
fertilizer , but convincing evidences for the causal connections between the exposure to CaCN2 and
human health damages are missed. Given a 96-h acute
zebrafish toxicity study, the No Observed Effect Concentration (NOEC) of
calcium cyanamide to
zebrafish was 100 mg/L CaCN2. In summary, most of the data are based on the evaluation of the effect of CaCN2 as a
fertilizer , and the related
research as a
mosquito inhibitor is still very scarce. The
research on
toxicity of CaCN2 in
mosquitoes needs to be further strengthened.