Project overview
Vectors are arthropods (mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, black flies and sandflies) that carry infectious agents such as protozoa, bacteria and viruses. They carry and transmit numerous diseases to humans: parasitic vector-borne diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease; arboviral diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile Virus, Rift Valley fever, and tickborne encephalitis; and bacterial and rickettsial diseases such as Lyme borreliosis, tularemia and plague.
Vector organisms and the infectious agents they carry are cold-blooded, so changes in temperature will affect their development, reproduction, behaviour and survival rates. Changing temperature and precipitation may shift the geographic range in which they can live and the seasonal period of disease risk. Temperature can also affect pathogen development within vectors, precipitation can influence the availability of breeding sites, and climatic variables can affect the distribution and abundance of their vertebrate host species.
There are many unknowns related to vectors biology, and to scientific laws of epidemiology of vectorborne diseases, however global changes of climate impose not only increased intensity in research, but also establishment of efficient monitoring system for vectors and vector-borne diseases. Knowledge related to these issues is developed inhomogeneous in space, so monitoring and control methods are also very different. Such situation reduces control efficiency on global levels and increases chances for sudden disease outbreaks.
Recently researches showed that spreading of disease vectors can be expected in the near future from the southeast part of Euro Asia to the parts of west Europe. West Nile virus example showed that migration of vectors and vector-borne diseases can be anticipated in direction from southeast-west and south-north.
While in the south European countries (France, Italy) developed services for the monitoring and the control exist, in the countries that form natural border of the European subcontinent, problem is more complex and requires larger engagement of scientific and material resources.
The mosquito species Aedes albopictus originated in Southeast Asia, but has spread during the last 30-40 years to North, Central and Southern America, parts of Africa, northern Australia and several countries in Europe. Since its first appearance in Albania in 1979 and in Italy in 1990, Aedes albopictus has been reported in more than 15 European countries. It is listed as one of the top 100 invasive species by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG, 2009) and is considered to be the most invasive mosquito species in the world.(http://ecdc.europa.eu/)
As of 24 November 2011, 93 confirmed human cases of West Nile fever have been reported in the EU; 69 cases in Greece, 14 in Italy and 10 in Romania. In the neighbouring countries, another 189 cases have been declared; 2 in Albania, 4 in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 33 in Israel, 136 in the Russian Federation, 3 in Tunisia, 3 in Turkey and 8 cases in Ukraine. Since the last update on November 21, three cases of West Nile fever have been reported from a new area, the Donets’ka oblast in Ukraine. In the Russian Federation, 1 new human case of West Nile fever has been reported from a new area, the Chelyabinskaya oblast.(http://ecdc.europa.eu/)