Invasive Aedes albopictus in the Americas: History
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Subjects: Entomology
Contributor:
Carlos M. Baak Baak
,
Julian Garcia-Rejon
,
Juan-Carlos Navarro
,
Nohemi Cigarroa Toledo

Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus Skuse is a mosquito native to Southeast Asia. Currently, it has a wide distribution in America, where natural infection with arboviruses of medical and veterinary importance has been reported. In the Americas, Ae. albopictus occupies the same ecological niches as Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti. It is difficult to incriminate the Asian mosquito as the cause of autochthonous arbovirus outbreaks. However, evidence suggests that Ae. albopictus is very effective in transmitting endemic arboviruses (such as dengue) in both horizontal and vertical transmission. Aedes albopictus could be useful as a sentinel species to monitor dengue virus in interepidemic periods.

  • Emerging arboviruses
  • Asian tiger mosquito
  • Spatial distribution

1. Introduction

Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus Skuse is a mosquito native to Southeast Asia, colloquially known as the Asian tiger mosquito or Asian mosquito. The mosquito was described by Skuse (1894) in the city of Calcutta, India [1][2]. At the beginning of 2000′s, its importance as a vector of arboviruses was restricted to Asian and African countries [1]. Currently, Ae. albopictus is present on all continents except Antarctica [3]. It has been observed that once established in new geographic areas, it can become involved in the natural cycles of arbovirus transmission. For example, in Europe it has colonized several countries and was involved in dengue outbreaks in France, Italy, and Spain [4][5][6]. In Italy, the genome of the chikungunya virus was identified in Ae. albopictus and it was incriminated as the vector that caused the local outbreaks of chikungunya fever [7]. Likewise, autochthonous cases of Zika fever occurred in France and Ae. albopictus was suspected as the transmitter of the virus [8]. In America, dengue virus is the most important mosquito-borne viruses in terms of its global impact on human morbidity and mortality. Approximately 23 million dengue cases were registered across the Americas between 1980 and 2017. In 2019 there was a resurgence of the dengue virus, reaching 3.1 million cases throughout the region [9]. Chikungunya and Zika viruses are emerging viruses in America that have caused explosive outbreaks from 2013 to 2016, which has since subsided [10]. Aedes aegypti is the main vector of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses in the region [10][11][12][13][14]. The antecedents demonstrate that Ae. albopictus can transmit these viruses [5][7][11][14]; therefore, it is considered a species with the potential to increase the risk of arbovirus transmission in America.

2. Chronological Order of the First Reports of Ae. albopictus in the Americas

The current distribution of Ae. albopictus encompasses 21 of 44 countries in the Americas, although the colonization pattern is different in each country (Table 1) and Chile and Peru have not reported any data yet. Previously, Kramer and collaborators [3] conducted a global compendium of the distribution of Ae. albopictus and described its presence in 16 countries of the Americas. According to reports, the mosquito has presented an erratic distribution, but with great rapidity in its movement through America. The introduction of Ae. albopictus in America was divided into four periods. In the first period (1983–1990), the Asian mosquito was reported in three countries. The first report occurred in the USA in 1983, when a single adult of Ae. albopictus was captured in a cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee [15]. Three years later, five male and six female mosquitoes with similar characteristics to the Asian mosquito were captured and their identity was confirmed as Ae. albopictus in Brazil (1986) [16]. In Mexico, the Asian mosquito was reported for the first time in 1988: the larvae were collected in tires [17]. In the second period (1993–1998), the Asian mosquito was reported in six countries including the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Guatemala, the Cayman Islands, Colombia, and Argentina [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Reiter [15] mentions that Ae. albopictus was reported in Bolivia and El Salvador, but there are no reports that confirm this. Their presence in these countries is not currently recognized. In the third period (2000–2010), the mosquito significantly expanded its distribution to ten countries, including Bermuda, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Belize, and Haiti [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. In the fourth period (2011–2021), the presence of the mosquito was only reported in Ecuador in 2017 and in Jamaica in 2018 [34][35]. It is well documented that the introduction of Ae. albopictus into America occurred through tires and bamboo stumps imported from Japan. It is also hypothesized that the massive distribution of the mosquito occurred through the export of used tires among countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia [1][15][16][17]. Within countries, automobiles are believed to contribute to the distribution [36].
Table 1. Chronological summary of publications on the first reports of Ae. albopictus in American countries.
Year of the First Report Country Collected Stage of the Mosquito Author
1983 USA A single adult collected [15]
1986 Brazil Captured five males and six females [16]
1988 Mexico Larvae collected in tires [17]
1995 Cuba Larvae collected [18]
1993 Dominican Republic Larvae collected in tires [19]
1995 Guatemala Larvae were collected in tires, glass bottles, and metal drums. [20]
1997 Cayman island Larvae collected [21]
1998 Colombia Captured adults [22]
1998 Argentina Larvae and pupae collected [23]
2000 Bermuda Island Larvae collected [24]
2002 Panama Larvae collected [25]
2001 Canada Two adults captured [26]
2002 Trinidad and Tobago Eggs collected with ovitrap [27]
2003 Uruguay Adults captured [28]
2003 Nicaragua Larvae collected [29]
2007 Costa Rica Larvae collected [30]
2009 Venezuela Larvae collected [31]
2009 Belize Adults captured [32]
2010 Haiti Larvae collected [33]
2017 Ecuador Captured 5 males and 16 females [34]
2018 Jamaica Six females captured [35]
 

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/insects12110967

References

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