Zoonotic Dirofilaria repens (Nematoda: Filarioidea) in Aedes vexans mosquitoes, Czech Republic

Abstract

The surveillance of vectors for arthropod-borne pathogens is nowadays an important tool in surveillance programmes throughout Europe. Whereas many studies have been performed to screen arthropods for viruses or bacterial pathogens, only limited information is available concerning the geographical distribution and vector range of pathogenic filariae in Central Europe. To consider the prevalence of filarial parasites in mosquito vectors, we performed a molecular survey of mosquitoes for filarial DNA. Mosquito collection was conducted at six study sites in the South Moravian region (Czech Republic) close to the borders with Slovakia and Austria from 2009 to 2011. Molecular screening of mosquitoes was conducted using conventional PCR with primers designed to amplify the mitochondrial cytochromoxidase subunit I gene as well as the partial 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene. A total of 13,222 mosquitoes belonging to six species were captured and distributed into 237 pools with different numbers of individuals. Overall, four pools were positive for Dirofilaria repens (a minimum infection rate 0.03%) at two study sites (both natural and urban). Another filarial parasite detected during a study into Aedes vexans mosquitoes revealed the closest homology to Setaria spp. We detected specific D. repens DNA in Ae. vexans mosquitoes for the first time in the Czech Republic and confirmed the circulation of Dirofilaria spp. in a natural focus of infection providing an epidemiological link between autochthonous canine cases and mosquito vectors in the area studied.

First molecular identification of Dirofilaria spp. (Onchocercidae) in mosquitoes from Serbia

“…Aedes vexans mosquitoes were previously reported with D. repens positivity from Slovakia (Rudolf et al 2014;Bocková et al 2015) and Hungary (Kemenesi et al 2015). The potential involvement of Oc.…”

Circulation of Dirofilaria repens and Dirofilaria immitis in Moldova

“…)/ torrentium D. repens and D. immitis Italy [49], Serbia [39]Belarus [16], Italy [40, 46, 49, 58], Serbia [39], Turkey [50], Germany [53], Portugal [41], Hungary [63], Spain [42] Anopheles maculipennis ( s.l . ) D. repens and D. immitis Germany [53, 60], Austria [61], Hungary [38]Italy [40], Portugal [41] Aedes vexans D. repens Czech Republic [62], Germany [60], Hungary [38], Serbia [39], Slovakia [43, 44]Italy [58], Turkey [50] Culex modestus D. repens Hungary [38]Hungary [63] Aedes annulipes D. repens Hungary [38]– Culiseta annulata D. repens Germany [60]– Aedes caspius D. repens –Italy [58], Hungary [63], Portugal [41], Serbia [39] Aedes sticticus D. repens Hungary [38], Serbia [39] Coquillettidia richiardii D. repens Hungary [38]Serbia [39], Italy [40] …”

“…infection patterns for the screened mosquitoes, i.e. only D. immitis [41, 42, 46, 50], only D. repens [38, 60–62] or co-circulation as also observed in Moldova [16, 39, 40, 43, 44, 49, 53, 58, 63]. Nevertheless, the incidence of human dirofilariasis in Europe is significantly higher for infections with D. repens than with D. immitis [2].…”

Case of human Dirofilaria repens infection manifested by cutaneous larva migrans syndrome

“…Nowadays, subcutaneous dirofilariasis is considered as arthropod-borne disease with fasted spread in Europe and represents high infection risk for both, animals and humans (Genchi et al 2005;Miterpáková et al 2010). In recent years, it has been documented in areas previously free of infection, e. g. in Austria, Hungary, Poland, Germany and Czech Republic (Fók et al 2007;Svobodová et al 2007;Genchi et al 2011;Rudolf et al 2014). In Slovakia, D. repens in dogs was for the first time detected in 2005 (Svobodová et al 2005).…”