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Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas
BACKGROUND: Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, originates from the tropical and subtropical regions of Southeast Asia. Over the recent decades it has been passively spread across the globe, primarily through the used tyre trade and passive transportation along major traffic routes. A. albop...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703296/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26734946 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004315 |
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author | Suter, Tobias T. Flacio, Eleonora Feijoó Fariña, Begoña Engeler, Lukas Tonolla, Mauro Regis, Lêda N. de Melo Santos, Maria A. V. Müller, Pie |
author_facet | Suter, Tobias T. Flacio, Eleonora Feijoó Fariña, Begoña Engeler, Lukas Tonolla, Mauro Regis, Lêda N. de Melo Santos, Maria A. V. Müller, Pie |
author_sort | Suter, Tobias T. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, originates from the tropical and subtropical regions of Southeast Asia. Over the recent decades it has been passively spread across the globe, primarily through the used tyre trade and passive transportation along major traffic routes. A. albopictus is a proven vector for many arboviruses, most notably chikungunya and dengue, with recent outbreaks also in continental Europe. In southern Switzerland, in the Canton of Ticino A. albopictus was spotted for the first time in 2003. Since then the local authorities have implemented a control programme based on larval source reduction. Despite these efforts, mosquito densities have increased over the last decade, casting doubts on the effectiveness of such larval control programmes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The Italian communities just across the Swiss-Italian border lack a control programme. This motivated us to compare the intervention and the non-intervention areas side by side in an attempt to find evidence for, or against, the effectiveness of larval A. albopictus control. Using ovitraps and a randomised sampling scheme, we examined the seasonal and spatial abundance of A. albopictus in sylvatic and urban environments across the Swiss-Italian border in 2012 and 2013. In the urban environments of the non-intervention area, egg densities were 2.26 times higher as compared to the intervention area. In the sylvatic environments, as compared to the urban environments, egg densities were 36% in the intervention area and 18% in the non-intervention area. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Though alternative explanations are also valid, the results support the hypothesis that the Ticino intervention programme does have an impact. At the same time the data also suggest that current larval interventions fall short in gaining full control over the mosquito, calling for the evaluation of additional, or alternative, approaches. Ideally, these should also consider inclusion of the neighbouring Italian communities in the surveillance and control efforts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4703296 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47032962016-01-15 Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas Suter, Tobias T. Flacio, Eleonora Feijoó Fariña, Begoña Engeler, Lukas Tonolla, Mauro Regis, Lêda N. de Melo Santos, Maria A. V. Müller, Pie PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, originates from the tropical and subtropical regions of Southeast Asia. Over the recent decades it has been passively spread across the globe, primarily through the used tyre trade and passive transportation along major traffic routes. A. albopictus is a proven vector for many arboviruses, most notably chikungunya and dengue, with recent outbreaks also in continental Europe. In southern Switzerland, in the Canton of Ticino A. albopictus was spotted for the first time in 2003. Since then the local authorities have implemented a control programme based on larval source reduction. Despite these efforts, mosquito densities have increased over the last decade, casting doubts on the effectiveness of such larval control programmes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The Italian communities just across the Swiss-Italian border lack a control programme. This motivated us to compare the intervention and the non-intervention areas side by side in an attempt to find evidence for, or against, the effectiveness of larval A. albopictus control. Using ovitraps and a randomised sampling scheme, we examined the seasonal and spatial abundance of A. albopictus in sylvatic and urban environments across the Swiss-Italian border in 2012 and 2013. In the urban environments of the non-intervention area, egg densities were 2.26 times higher as compared to the intervention area. In the sylvatic environments, as compared to the urban environments, egg densities were 36% in the intervention area and 18% in the non-intervention area. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Though alternative explanations are also valid, the results support the hypothesis that the Ticino intervention programme does have an impact. At the same time the data also suggest that current larval interventions fall short in gaining full control over the mosquito, calling for the evaluation of additional, or alternative, approaches. Ideally, these should also consider inclusion of the neighbouring Italian communities in the surveillance and control efforts. Public Library of Science 2016-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4703296/ /pubmed/26734946 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004315 Text en © 2016 Suter et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited |
spellingShingle | Research Article Suter, Tobias T. Flacio, Eleonora Feijoó Fariña, Begoña Engeler, Lukas Tonolla, Mauro Regis, Lêda N. de Melo Santos, Maria A. V. Müller, Pie Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas |
title | Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas |
title_full | Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas |
title_fullStr | Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas |
title_full_unstemmed | Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas |
title_short | Surveillance and Control of Aedes albopictus in the Swiss-Italian Border Region: Differences in Egg Densities between Intervention and Non-intervention Areas |
title_sort | surveillance and control of aedes albopictus in the swiss-italian border region: differences in egg densities between intervention and non-intervention areas |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703296/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26734946 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004315 |
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