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Muja-Bajraktari N, Kadriaj P, Zhushi-Etemi F, Sherifi K, Alten B, Petrić D, Velo E, Schaffner F. The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse) in Kosovo: First record. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0264300. [PMID: 35290988 PMCID: PMC8923454 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is an invasive mosquito species that is considered a potential vector of about 22 arboviruses, among which dengue, chikungunya and Zika. Here we report the first record of Aedes albopictus in the territory of the Republic of Kosovo. The first finding, in July 2020, was driven by a photo of an adult mosquito published by a citizen in social media. The subsequent field investigation in July 2020 confirmed the presence of adult mosquitoes by human landing catch and collection of eggs in ovitraps at the village Zhur. Monitoring was performed for 7 weeks with ovitraps and BG-Sentinel adult traps at 36 sampling stations from 7 localities, in the Southern part of Kosovo, on the border with Albania. Fifty-two out of 81 ovitrap samples resulted positive for the presence of Ae. albopictus. A total of 2,711 eggs are collected in 22 out 36 stations and a total of 78 adults from 4 out 4 stations with BG Sentinel trap and 15 adults with handled electric aspirator. Our finding shows that the tiger mosquito is expanding its geographical range in the Balkans, southeastern Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nesade Muja-Bajraktari
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University" Hasan Prishtina", Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
| | - Përparim Kadriaj
- Department of Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases, Institute of Public Health, Tirana, Albania
| | - Ferdije Zhushi-Etemi
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University" Hasan Prishtina", Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
| | - Kurtesh Sherifi
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University" Hasan Prishtina", Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
| | - Bulent Alten
- VERG Laboratories, Ecology Division, Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Dusan Petrić
- Laboratory for Medical and Veterinary Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
| | - Enkelejda Velo
- Department of Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases, Institute of Public Health, Tirana, Albania
- * E-mail:
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