The recently introduced Aedes albopictus in Tunisia has the potential to transmit chikungunya, dengue and Zika viruses

Abstract

The mosquito Aedes albopictus was detected for the first time in Tunisia in 2018. With its establishment in the capital city of Tunis, local health authorities fear the introduction of new human arboviral diseases, like what happened in Europe with unexpected local cases of chikungunya, dengue and Zika. Even though this mosquito is competent to transmit the arboviruses mentioned above, the transmission level will vary depending on the couple, mosquito population and virus genotype. Here, we assessed the vector competence of Ae . albopictus Tunisia by experimental infections with chikungunya (CHIKV), dengue (DENV), and Zika (ZIKV) viruses. We found that Ae . albopictus Tunisia was highly competent for CHIKV (transmission efficiency of 25% at 21 post-infection) and to a lesser extent, for ZIKV (8.7%) and DENV (8.3%). Virus was detected in mosquito saliva at day 3 (CHIKV), day 10 (ZIKV) and day 21 (DENV) post-infection. These results suggest that the risk of emergence of chikungunya is the highest imposing a more sustained surveillance to limit Ae . albopictus populations in densely populated urban dwellings and at the entry points of travelers returning from CHIKV-endemic regions.

Causes of Phenotypic Variability and Disabilities after Prenatal Viral Infections

“…Aegypti [ 56 , 124 ]. A similar situation was seen with Dengue in Thailand, which likely contributed to the number of people affected and disease severity by impacting the overall viral load in the host [ 56 , 125 , 126 ]. Cumulatively, there is an increased risk of transmission, especially in urban populations where Aedes proliferation, and in turn viral load, is only mitigated by human behavior [ 55 , 56 ].…”

Short communication: New report of Aedes albopictus in Souk Ahras, Northeast Algeria

“…Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) (Diptera: Culicidae) is an invasive mosquito native from Southeast Asia (Lizuain et al 2019). It is best known as a vector of several viruses of public health significance (Bohers et al 2020;Ferreirade-Lima et al 2020;Vega-Rúa et al 2020;Vega-Rúa et al 2020) such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. There were a recent series of outbreaks of these diseases around the world (Calba et al 2017;Venturi et al 2017;Vasqueza et al 2018;Franke et al 2019).…”

“…Apart from causing discomfort with its daytime bites, the major concern of Ae. albopictus emergence is its ability to transmit several viruses (Amraoui et al 2019;Bohers et al 2020). This species has been implicated as a vector of chikungunya (Honório et al 2019), dengue (Ferreira-de-Lima et al 2020), yellow fever (Kamgang et al 2019) and Zika (McKenzie et al 2019;Bohers et al 2020) viruses.…”

“…albopictus emergence is its ability to transmit several viruses (Amraoui et al 2019;Bohers et al 2020). This species has been implicated as a vector of chikungunya (Honório et al 2019), dengue (Ferreira-de-Lima et al 2020), yellow fever (Kamgang et al 2019) and Zika (McKenzie et al 2019;Bohers et al 2020) viruses. Many southern European countries suffered from several vector borne diseases with Aedes albopictus as a main vector.…”

Profiles of Amino Acids and Acylcarnitines Related with Deltamethrin Resistance in Aedes Albopictus

“…Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Ae. albopictus), has spread to 70 countries all over the world out of its native home in Southeast Asia [1], with strong capacity in the transmission of various arboviruses like Dengue and Zika viruses [2]. At present, vector population control strategies, especially usage of insecticides targeting the larval and adult stages, are the most popular way to limit Ae.…”