Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) and their relevance as disease vectors in the city of Vienna, Austria

Abstract

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are important vectors for a wide range of pathogenic organisms. As large parts of the human population in developed countries live in cities, the occurrence of vector-borne diseases in urban areas is of particular interest for epidemiologists and public health authorities. In this study, we investigated the mosquito occurrence in the city of Vienna, Austria, in order to estimate the risk of transmission of mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes were captured using different sampling techniques at 17 sites in the city of Vienna. Species belonging to the Culex pipiens complex (78.8 %) were most abundant, followed by Coquillettidia richiardii (10.2 %), Anopheles plumbeus (5.4 %), Aedes vexans (3.8 %), and Ochlerotatus sticticus (0.7 %). Individuals of the Cx. pipiens complex were found at 80.2 % of the trap sites, while 58.8 % of the trap sites were positive for Cq. richiardii and Ae. vexans. Oc. sticticus was captured at 35.3 % of the sites, and An. plumbeus only at 23.5 % of the trap sites. Cx. pipiens complex is known to be a potent vector and pathogens like West Nile virus (WNV), Usutu virus (USUV), Tahyna virus (TAHV), Sindbis virus (SINV), Plasmodium sp., and Dirofilaria repens can be transmitted by this species. Cq. richiardii is a known vector species for Batai virus (BATV), SINV, TAHV, and WNV, while Ae. vexans can transmit TAHV, USUV, WNV, and Dirofilaria repens. An. plumbeus and Oc. sticticus seem to play only a minor role in the transmission of vector-borne diseases in Vienna. WNV, which is already wide-spread in Europe, is likely to be the highest threat in Vienna as it can be transmitted by several of the most common species, has already been shown to pose a higher risk in cities, and has the possibility to cause severe illness.

DNA-aided identification of Culex mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) reveals unexpected diversity in underground cavities in Austria

“…The species-rich genera Aedes and Ochlerotatus mainly hibernate in their immature stages (Becker et al 2010 ) and were therefore, as expected, not recorded in this study. The absence of Uranotaenia species at the studied sites possibly relates to their limited distribution in Burgenland, near Lake Neusiedl (Lebl et al 2014 ; Camp et al 2018 ), while there are only single records in other federal states (Lebl et al 2015; Zittra et al 2017 ).…”

“…Furthermore, the two biotypes are known to hybridise in areas where they coexist (Zittra et al 2016 ), which may result in populations that act as bridge vectors due to their feeding preferences (Hamer et al 2008 ; Černý et al 2011 ). Previous studies, not only with reference to Austria, mainly focused on epigean urban and wetland habitats, completely neglecting less accessible sites such as natural caves (Lebl et al 2014 ; Zittra et al 2016 ).…”

Field Evaluation of DNA Based Biodiversity Monitoring of Caribbean Mosquitoes

“…Larvae and pupae were collected by dipping (Becker et al, 2013) in stagnant water bodies such as cisterns, ponds, rock pools, wells, tree holes, pots, and plant containers such as bromeliads. To test how well dipping and eDNA collection perform across a variety of conditions, whilst tackling habitat preference (Becker et al, 2013;Petric et al, 2014), we made an attempt to sample as many different types of water bodies as possible (Harbach, 2007;ECDC, 2014;Richardson and Richardson, 2014;Lebl et al, 2015). The risk of cross contamination was negligible because all sampling locations were spatially separated.…”

Short Communication: Species diversity, habitat and abundance of Culicid mosquitoes in Bushehr Province, South of Iran

“…Culicidae are main vectors for a wide range of diseases such as malaria, lymphatic filariasis, West Nile‚ zika, sindbis‚ dengue and yellow fever (Azarihamidian et al 2009;Bagheri et al 2015;Lebl et al 2015;Foster and Walker 2019). Malaria‚ West Nile‚ and dirofilariasis are the most important Culicid-borne diseases in Iran (Naficy and Saidi 1970;Khoobdel 2008;Azarihamidian et al 2009;Bagheri et al 2015).…”