Summary
West
Nile virus (WNV) is neuropathogenic for birds, horses and humans
and is maintained in natural cycles between birds and mosquitoes,
particularly the Culex genus; horses and humans are considered
to be incidental hosts. A surveillance plan was implemented in Italy
in 1998, following a limited outbreak of WNV equine encephalomyelitis
and a WNV outbreak in France very close to the Italian border. This
plan to assess the risks of the virus being introduced again included
entomological surveillance performed in 15 study areas considered
at
risk
of WNV introduction in the country. Entomological surveys conducted
in Italy from 2003 to 2007 resulted in the capture of a total of
28 798 mosquitoes, of which there were 14 765 adults and 14 033
larvae belonging to 22 species. According to the literature, eight
of the species identified have been found to be naturally infected
with WNV or were successfully infected in the laboratory in some
parts of Europe and in the United States, namely: Aedes albopictus
(Skuse, 1897) (= Stegomiya albopicta), Aedes vexans
(Meigen, 1830), Anopheles maculipennis Meigen, 1818, Coquillettidia
richiardii (Ficalbi, 1889), Culex modestus Ficalbi, 1889,
Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758, Culex theileri Theobald,
1903 and Ochlerotatus caspius (Pallas, 1771) (= Aedes
caspius).
Keywords
Culex
pipiens, Italy, Monitoring, Mosquito, West Nile, Surveillance,
Virus. |