An autochthonous chikungunya outbreak is ongoing near Anzio, a coastal town in the province of Rome. The virus isolated from one patient and mosquitoes lacks the A226V mutation and belongs to an East Central South African strain. As of 20 September, 86 cases are laboratory-confirmed. The outbreak proximity to the capital, its late summer occurrence, and diagnostic delays, are favouring transmission. Vector control, enhanced surveillance and restricted blood donations are being implemented in affected areas.

We report a study on vector competence of an Italian population of Aedes albopictus for Zika virus (ZIKV). Ae. albopictus was susceptible to ZIKV infection (infection rate: 10%), and the virus could disseminate and was secreted in the mosquito’s saliva (dissemination rate: 29%; transmission rate: 29%) after an extrinsic incubation period of 11 days. The observed vector competence was lower than that of an Ae. aegypti colony tested in parallel.

Nel presente lavoro vengono riportate le informazioni essenziali su tassonomia e biologia nonché sugli aspetti ecologici degli adulti dei Culicidi italiani. Attualmente la fauna culicidica italiana comprende 64 specie appartenenti a 2 sottofamiglie e 8 generi. Alla sottofamiglia Anophelinae appartiene soltanto il genere Anopheles, presente con 16 specie raggruppate in due sottogeneri. Alla sottofamiglia Culicinae appartengono i rimanenti 7 generi: Aedes con 6 specie raggruppate in 3 sottogeneri, Coquillettidia con 2 specie, Ochlerotatus con 20 specie raggruppate in 3 sottogeneri, Culex con 12 specie raggruppate in 4 sottogeneri, Culiseta con 6 specie raggruppate in 3 sottogeneri, Orthopodomyia e Uranotaenia con una specie ognuna. In questo contesto vengono fornite le chiavi di identificazione specifica per le zanzare adulte, in italiano e in inglese. Le chiavi sono corredate da un’ampia iconografia (figure 1-75). Alle chiavi fa seguito la diagnosi morfologica dell’adulto di ogni specie con note sulla relativa biologia e distribuzione. Per ulteriori approfondimenti viene riportata la bibliografia completa sulle zanzare della fauna italiana dal 1960 ed i precedenti lavori più autorevoli.

Eight years after the introduction and establishment of Aedes albopictus in Roma, females of the species extended their trophic activity to the coldest months of the year. Winter monitoring carried out from December 2003 to March 2004 in the urban area of the capital city of Italy recorded a weekly rate of positive ovitraps constantly around 30%, for the entire period of surveillance (14 wk). Eggs from ovitraps did not hatch when stimulated in laboratory with a wet and dry procedure. The hypothesis that long-lived female Ae. albopictus, belonging to the last seasonal generation, could have continued their trophic activity for 3 months, or that 1 or more cycles of reproduction have occurred in peculiar breeding sites, where a favorable microclimate may have allowed the development of at least 1 larval generation, are discussed and compared with the existing literature.

No abstract