In October 2018, two Atelerix algirus hedgehogs were admitted to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) with signs of acute neurological disease. Necropsy detected immature, fully developed nematodes in the subarachnoid space of both hedgehogs, including a gravid female worm. DNA-based molecular tools confirmed the nematode as Angiostrongylus cantonensis , an important aetiological agent of eosinophilic meningitis in humans. So far this zoonotic parasite in has not been reported in western European wildlife.

T he rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, infects animals and humans. Although this nematode species is recognized as the main etiologic agent of eosinophilic meningitis (1), infection might result in other central nervous system disorders (2). Clinical manifestations are aggravated by movement and subsequent death of the worms in the central nervous system, causing physical lesions and inflammation in accidental hosts (3). In humans, severe headache, neck stiffness, paresthesia, convulsions, urinary failure, visual impairment, and other symptoms, occasionally leading to coma and death, have been reported (1,4).The life cycle of A. cantonensis worms includes rats as definitive and gastropods as intermediate hosts; crustaceans, planarians, amphibians, reptiles, and fish might act as paratenic hosts (2). More than 20 vertebrate species, including humans, have been reported as A. cantonensis lungworm accidental hosts (5). This long list of vertebrate hosts includes nonhuman primates (6), marsupials (7), bats (8), horses (9), dogs (10), birds (11), and more recently, hedgehogs (12). The role of hedgehogs in the transmission of this parasite remains to be clarified.A. cantonensis worms were detected in Canton, China, infecting the lungs of rats ( 13) and a decade later, in the cerebrospinal fluid of a person from Taiwan (14). For decades, disease-endemic areas were limited to the Pacific basin and Southeast Asia, but this parasite has spread to new territories at an alarming rate (1). The invasion of A. cantonensis lungworms has been associated with unintended importation of infected rats and gastropods on ships (2,15). Almost 3,000 cases of human neuroangiostrongyliasis have been reported (16) from 30 territories (3), although the prevalence might be higher (17).Europe was considered to be nonendemic for A. cantonensis worms until 2018 when the parasite was reported infecting the brains of 2 hedgehogs on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca (12). Although the rat lungworm had been previously reported on Tenerife, a subtropical, non-European overseas oceanic island (18), its detection in Mallorca is an indisputable indication of its presence in Europe (5). Mallorca is a major Mediterranean tourism hotspot, highly interconnected with continental Europe. After the detection, the question remained whether A. cantonensis nematodes could survive the temperate winters of Europe. The purpose of this study was to use sentinel surveillance for symptomatic fauna to confirm whether the rat lungworm has been successfully established on Mallorca.

Several outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases have taken place in Europe in recent years. In Spain, both active and passive surveillance have demonstrated that dengue and West Nile viruses are currently circulating, and seven autochthonous dengue cases have been reported in the last 2 yr. The effectiveness of vector control programs largely depends on the accuracy of the taxonomic identification of the species. However, in Spain, identification almost completely relies on the use of morphological keys to characterize the mosquito fauna. This study investigates the congruence between molecular and morphological species boundaries in 13 Spanish mosquito taxa. The Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene region was sequenced from 60 adult specimens collected in Mallorca, plus several representatives from other Spanish regions for comparative purposes. Phylogenetic relationships were established using Bayesian and maximum-likelihood approaches. Using three species delimitation algorithms (ABGD, mPTP, and GMYC), we found strong evidence for cryptic speciation within Anopheles algeriensis Theobald, a widespread mosquito in the Mediterranean basin. We also delimited the Mallorcan rock pool mosquito Aedes mariae (Sergent & Sergent), from mainland European populations. Finally, we found difficulties in the use of wing characters in species keys to distinguish Culiseta annulata (Schrk) from Culiseta subochrea (Edwards). Given that these species are vectors of pathogens of medical relevance and have veterinary importance, their accurate taxonomic identification is essential in European vector surveillance programs.

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Angiostrongylus cantonensis is an invasive nematode parasite that can cause eosinophilic meningitis in many vertebrate hosts, including humans. This parasite is spreading rapidly through the six continents, with Europe being the final frontier. Sentinel surveillance may be a cost-effective surveillance strategy to monitor the arrival of this pathogen to new geographical regions as this can be easily expanded to incorporate symptomatic wildlife. Necropsy and tissue digestion techniques are often used to recover helminth parasites from vertebrate host tissues, however their application to detect brain parasites is poorly utilized. Here we show that employing these techniques in combination can 1) help resolve false positive and negative animals, 2) provide accurate parasitic load values and 3) establish an accurate prevalence of A. cantonensis. Our adapted tissue digestion technique can be easily performed, especially in wildlife hospitals where animal infections often precede human cases. Early detection of the parasite increases the efficacy of prevention, treatment, and disease control strategies not only in humans, but also in susceptible animal populations.