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Experimental Viral Infection in Adult Mosquitoes by Oral Feeding and Microinjection
Published on: July 28, 2022
[Mosquitoes, climate change and new diseases]
Anders Lindström1, Tobias Lilja2, Disa Eklöf3
1fil dr, forskare och entomolog, specialist på stickmyggor, Statens veterinärmedicinska anstalt, Uppsala.
Abstract:
Climate change affects all organisms, including mosquitoes. Shorter, milder winters and prolonged vegetation period are expected to increase mosquito populations, thereby heightening the risk of mosquito-borne disease transmission. West Nile fever exemplifies a disease that has expanded northward in recent decades, now endemic in Germany as far as the Baltic Sea coast. Additionally, mosquito species are shifting their geographical distribution. For instance, Culex modestus, known for transmitting West Nile virus, was first identified in Sweden in 2016. Invasive species like Aedes albopictus are also expanding with concurrently autochthonous transmissions of Dengue fever to humans in Europe. In 2023, two Aedes albopictus introductions were recorded in Sweden, likely occur-ring regularly, though no established populations have been confirmed. Malaria, once widespread in Sweden during the 18th and 19th centuries, disappeared, yet reintroduction due to climate change seems highly unlikely. Swedish health care must be prepared to diagnose Dengue and Chikungunya in travelers to southern Europe as well as for the emergence of West Nile virus in southernmost Sweden.
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