The ‘arm in cage’ method involves applying a topical repellent onto a human volunteer’s forearm and exposing the treated skin to mosquitoes for a set amount of time during which mosquito landings are counted.
Depending on the experimental design, this test can be used to determine the minimum dose of the repellent that gives protection to mosquito landing on the skin (effective doses), or to determine for how long a specific repellent dose grants protection from mosquito landing on the skin (protection time).
Participation of human volunteers in arm in cage tests has been reviewed and approved by the LSTM’s Research Ethics Committee.
References: