Successful overwintering of Aedes albopictus in Germany

Abstract

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is of great concern to public health authorities due to its vector competence and rapid spread across the globe. In 2015, two large local breeding populations of Ae. albopictus were discovered in southwest Germany. In spring 2016, we were able to demonstrate the first evidence of a successful overwintering in Germany of this originally tropical mosquito species in different research projects. Particularly noteworthy is the successful hatching of diapause eggs of an Italian strain (Calabria), which overwintered successfully in the field in St. Georgen im Schwarzwald (Baden-Wuerttemberg) at 820 m above sea level. Furthermore, within the scope of a larvae monitoring, the first larvae that hatched in the field were detected on the April 09, 2016 in a rain barrel within the Heidelberg population. Our first results show that self-extinction due to an unsuccessful overwintering cannot be assumed for populations of the Asian tiger mosquito which settled in Germany in previous years. The evidence of a successful overwintering of a large number of diapause eggs and the hatching of the first larvae in field conditions opens the control year against Ae. albopictus in southwest Germany.

Experimental transmission of Zika virus by mosquitoes from central Europe

“…Aedes albopictus are regularly introduced into Germany as accidental cargo via road traffic from southern Europe [17]. In the winter 2015/16, successful overwintering of the species was observed for the first time in southern Germany [18]. The results presented here indicate that specimens of this overwintering population have considerable susceptibility to ZIKV, although only at elevated temperature of 27 °C.…”

Experimental risk assessment for chikungunya virus transmission based on vector competence, distribution and temperature suitability in Europe, 2018

“…albopictus . Still, overwintering was recently suggested in Germany [16-18]. This included local expansion of populations and detection of larvae already in spring.…”

Beyond frontiers: On invasive alien mosquito species in America and Europe

“…It was first detected in 1979 in Albania, and thenceforth it was detected and is currently considered an established species in Italy since 1990, then in France since 1999, Greece and Switzerland since 2003, and Belgium and Spain since 2004 [15]. In 2015, A. albopictus was detected in Germany and successfully overwintered to 2016 [16], and in 2016, it was detected in southern England [17] ( Fig 1B).…”