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. 2012 Feb 9:5:32.
doi: 10.1186/1756-3305-5-32.

West Nile virus vector Culex modestus established in southern England

Nick Golding  1 , Miles A Nunn, Jolyon M Medlock, Bethan V Purse, Alexander G C Vaux, Stefanie M Schäfer
Affiliations

West Nile virus vector Culex modestus established in southern England

Nick Golding et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: The risk posed to the United Kingdom by West Nile virus (WNV) has previously been considered low, due to the absence or scarcity of the main Culex sp. bridge vectors. The mosquito Culex modestus is widespread in southern Europe, where it acts as the principle bridge vector of WNV. This species was not previously thought to be present in the United Kingdom.

Findings: Mosquito larval surveys carried out in 2010 identified substantial populations of Cx. modestus at two sites in marshland in southeast England. Host-seeking-adult traps placed at a third site indicate that the relative seasonal abundance of Cx. modestus peaks in early August. DNA barcoding of these specimens from the United Kingdom and material from southern France confirmed the morphological identification.

Conclusions: Cx. modestus appears to be established in the North Kent Marshes, possibly as the result of a recent introduction. The addition of this species to the United Kingdom's mosquito fauna may increase the risk posed to the United Kingdom by WNV.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A) North-west Europe, showing locations where Culex modestus populations were detected in this study (white circles), the location of Cx. modestus identified in southern England in 1944-5 (white triangle), and recent records from Europe (black triangles; Francis Schaffner, personal communication and articles cited here). All of these recent records date from the period 2004-2009 with the exception of the two northernmost French records, which date from 1995 and 1998. B) Thames Estuary area, showing locations where Cx. modestus populations were detected in 2010 (white circles) and the locations of international shipping terminals (black squares). To give an indication of the size of the port, black squares are proportional to number of ships arriving during May 2011: small squares 1-25 ships; medium squares 26-75 ships; large squares 75-165 ships. Urban and semi-urban areas, as classified by the United Kingdom Land Cover Map 2000, are coloured dark grey.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phylogenetic maximum-likelihood tree of COI sequences (603 bp) from Culex modestus (North Kent Marshes (NKM) specimens in boldface) and other representatives of the Culex genus estimated using the T92+Γ+I model of nucleotide substitution, which was selected by MODELTEST. Bootstrap values are shown for the main clades only. The accession numbers and geographic origin of the 35 GenBank downloads (which represent 10 unique sequences) and COI barcodes generated in this study (asterisked) are shown. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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