RMCA literature published elsewhere

Ann Vanderheyden,  Nathalie Smitz,  Isra Deblauwe,  Katrien De Wolf,  Sophie Gombeer,  Kenny Meganck,  Anna Schneider,  Jacobus De Witte,  Wouter Dekoninck,  Thierry Backeljau,  Marc De Meyer,  Ruth Müller,  Javiera Rebolledo Gonzalez & Wim Van Bortel. 2022. ‘MEMO and MEMO+: Identification of introduction pathways and surveillance of exotic Aedes mosquito species in Belgium’. International Conference on DNA Barcoding and Biodiversity. Book of abstracts.

Conference abstract

The introduction of exotic mosquito species (EMS) is a threat to biodiversity and human health in sev-eral European countries. Some exotic Aedes species display high invasion potential and are vector spe-cies of several arboviruses. Belgian federal authorities, federated entities funded an active monitoring project (MEMO, 2017-2020) which aimed at detecting EMS in Belgium. Reliable species identification of all life stages is a prerequisite for such monitoring and therefore the morphological species identifi-cations were validated by DNA-barcoding and PCR amplification of DNA fragments. These methods were translated into a pipeline designed to process large quantities of specimens efficiently and to gen-erate species identifications. As such, it allowed for the reliable identification of the majority of native mosquito species (N=33) in Belgium and all six EMS of main concern to Europe. During MEMO, about 3,300 mosquitoes were DNA-barcoded, collected at 23 points of entry (PoE’s) in Belgium. Mon-itoring activities revealed the regular introduction or establishment of three exotic Aedes species at multiple PoE’s, viz. Ae. albopictus, Ae. japonicus and Ae. koreicus. Therefore, a follow-up monitoring project, MEMO+, was launched in 2021. In this respect, Ae. albopictus specifically is cause of concern as it can be a vector of pathogens. The species has established overwintering populations in neighbour-ing countries and is spreading northward, reaching Belgium sporadically, probably from nearby estab-lished populations, as Ae. albopictus was collected multiple times along highways. COI sequence data showed that the haplotype composition of Ae. albopictus (N=95) differed between international import companies and parking lots, which may reflect different introduction pathways. Therefore, MEMO+ will implement, in addition to active monitoring at PoE’s, passive monitoring, involving citizens report-ing Ae. Albopictus through pictures, to cover a larger geographical area. DNA-based validation of EMS will be implemented for an effective surveillance of potential disease-vectors.