An Application of Vehicle-Routing Methodology to Large-Scale Larvicide Control Programs

Because black flies transmit disease-producing parasites, many countries try to control them by treating their breeding sites. We designed a strategy to minimize larvicide treatment costs. It involves the minimization of the larvicide used and the number of injection points, achieved by combining a mortality model of larvae, a model for the behavior of the larvicide in water-courses, and a shortest-path model. The strategy also involves the minimization of the flight time for the helicopters used to deploy larvicide, performed by a state-of-the-art heuristic. This method showed potential savings of $100,000 per year on a trial three-day circuit for one helicopter, issued by the onchocerciasis control program (OCP) aerial operations in Western Africa.