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. 2018 Nov;23(47):1700837.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.47.1700837.

Arbovirus surveillance: first dengue virus detection in local Aedes albopictus mosquitoes in Europe, Catalonia, Spain, 2015

Carles Aranda  1   2   3 , Miguel J Martínez  3   4   5 , Tomas Montalvo  6   7 , Roger Eritja  1 , Jessica Navero-Castillejos  4 , Eva Herreros  1 , Eduard Marqués  8 , Raúl Escosa  9 , Irene Corbella  10 , Esther Bigas  10 , Lluís Picart  10 , Mireia Jané  11   7 , Irene Barrabeig  11 , Núria Torner  11   7 , Sandra Talavera  2 , Ana Vázquez  12   7 , Mari Paz Sánchez-Seco  12 , Núria Busquets  2
Affiliations

Arbovirus surveillance: first dengue virus detection in local Aedes albopictus mosquitoes in Europe, Catalonia, Spain, 2015

Carles Aranda et al. Euro Surveill. 2018 Nov.

Abstract

Dengue has emerged as the most important viral mosquito-borne disease globally. The current risk of dengue outbreaks in Europe appeared with the introduction of the vector Aedes albopictus mosquito in Mediterranean countries. Considering the increasing frequency of dengue epidemics worldwide and the movement of viraemic hosts, it is expected that new autochthonous cases will occur in the future in Europe. Arbovirus surveillance started in Catalonia in 2015 to monitor imported cases and detect possible local arboviral transmission. During 2015, 131 patients with a recent travel history to endemic countries were tested for dengue virus (DENV) and 65 dengue cases were detected. Twenty-eight patients with a febrile illness were viraemic, as demonstrated by a positive real-time RT-PCR test for DENV in serum samples. Entomological investigations around the viraemic cases led to the detection of DENV in a pool of local Ae. albopictus captured in the residency of one case. The sequence of the DENV envelope gene detected in the mosquito pool was identical to that detected in the patient. Our results show how entomological surveillance conducted around viraemic travellers can be effective for early detection of DENV in mosquitoes and thus might help to prevent possible autochthonous transmission.

Keywords: Ae. albopictus; Europe; arbovirus surveillance; dengue virus; transmission.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of dengue cases (n = 17) around whom mosquito pools (n = 65) were tested for dengue virus, Catalonia, Spain, May–November 2015
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chronological representation of events leading to dengue virus detection in human and in Aedes albopictus samples, Catalonia, Spain, 2015
Figure 3
Figure 3
Investigation of the origin of a dengue virus serotype 2 detected in Aedes albopictus by phylogenetic analysis of the envelope gene sequence, Catalonia, Spain, September 2015
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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