AIMSurv Aedes Invasive Mosquito species harmonized surveillance in Europe. AIM-COST Action

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 20,930 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Miranda Chueca M Á, Barceló Seguí C (2022): AIMSurv Aedes Invasive Mosquito species harmonized surveillance in Europe. AIM-COST Action. v2.3. Universitat de les Illes Balears. Dataset/Samplingevent. https://doi.org/10.15470/vs3677

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Universitat de les Illes Balears. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 03269e13-84ae-430f-990e-f11069413e36.  Universitat de les Illes Balears publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.

Keywords

Samplingevent; Aedes; Mosquito; Invasive; Surveillance; Europe; sampling

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

The AIMSurv harmonized surveillance of Aedes Invasive Mosquito species has been conducted in 23 European countries and one North African country: Albania, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Turkey.

Taxonomic Coverage

Aedes Invasive Mosquito species are included, namely: Aedes albopictus, Aedes japonicus and Aedes koreicus. Native species of mosquitos are also included: Aedes caspius, Aedes detritus, Aedes geniculatus, Anopheles maculipennis, Anopheles plumbeus, Culex hortensis, Culex pipiens, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, Culiseta annulata and Culiseta longiareolata. Unidentified species of the genera Aedes and Culex are also included.

Project Data

The surveillance and control of Aedes albopictus and other Aedes Invasive Mosquito (AIM) species and the management of the risk of introduction and spread of Exotic Invasive Aedes Mosquito Borne Viruses (EAIMBV; e.g. dengue, DENV; yellow fever, YFV; chikungunya, CHIKV; Japanese encephalitis, JEV, and ZIKAV) in Europe require multidisciplinary research (e.g. entomological, epidemiological, environmental, climatic, demographic, mathematical, statistical, computational), cost-effective conventional/innovative methods, strong linkage between academics, public health (PH) professionals and policy-makers at the national and international level, as well as more a integrated private sector and a better informed and engaged society. These activities require an effective transboundary network of partners integrating all these stakeholder groups in Europe and beyond to identify and fill knowledge gaps, enhance research effectiveness, standardise, optimise and promote new country-tailored surveillance and control procedures, and improve dissemination.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

The sampling protocol for Pan-European surveillance of AIM species (AIMSurv harmonized the sampling methods, frequency, minimum length of the sampling period and the form of reporting. There were minimum requirements (Minimum Requirements Protocol; MRP) about the type of samples (i.e., eggs in ovitraps), number of sampled sites, number of traps and frequency of collecting samples. Teams with more resources were suggested to follow a Recommended protocol (RP) to either increase number of samplings and/ or, additionally to eggs, sample other life stages such as adults. The use of a common platform for data collection was also suggested, the VECMAP® App system was made freely available by Avia-GIS to all participants during AIMSurv activities. For the MRP, all teams performed the survey in three sampling sites separated by 10 Km or more. Five oviposition traps (ovitraps) per site were placed and separated by 15 to 100 m. The type of ovitrap was selected by each team according to their availability in the region but usually consisted of 250 to 1000 ml capacity black containers filled with tap water. One scratched wooden tongue depressor (1.7x15 cm) per ovitrap, was used as a substrate for oviposition. Some teams used similar size pieces of Masonite board (when part of a pre-existing surveillance network). The selected sampling sites shared a similar environment, when possible, in urban and/or peri-urban areas (e.g., a garden of single-family houses in residential urban/peri-urban areas, public parks near residential areas, recreational areas). The frequency of sample collection was biweekly over a minimum of three months that must include the population peak of the targeted AIM species (e.g., in Spain: from September to November). The following parameters were recorded: latitude and longitude of the position of each trap; the name of municipality/county/district (according to the country) and locality; start and end date of each trapping event (e.g., a period of 14 days / 2 weeks for ovitraps); land use according to VECMAP® categories (urban, peri-urban and others); count of each life stage collected, including absences (0 values); finally, trap status (e.g., missing, broken, empty, etc.) per trapping event was also recorded. The more ambitious RP sampling included additional sampling sites sharing similar or different environments (e.g., urban areas, rural areas, high altitude areas, etc), again with five ovitraps per site, weekly sampling frequency and sampling length during the whole seasonality of the AIM species including start, peak and end of the mosquito season (e.g., May to November in Central Europe). In addition, sampling adults using one BG-Sentinel™ (Biogents, Germany) trap baited with BG-Lure™ (Biogents, Germany) and/or CO2 per site under a sampling frequency of one trap/night per week was also included. The use of VECMAP® to report the data was also suggested in the RP. Parameters to record were the same as for the MRP plus the daily or weekly record of meteorological parameters (maximum, minimum, average temperature) per site, collected using data loggers or local weather stations. For the processing of samples, collected eggs of AIM species were counted. For every location, a sub-sample (2 out of 5 ovitrap substrates per locality) of eggs was reared to confirm the species by larva/adult morphology, particularly in those areas where several AIM species are present (i.e., Ae. albopictus and Ae. japonicus). Alternatively, species were identified using MALDI-TOF MS or other molecular methods (e.g., DNA sequencing). Adult of AIM species collected in BG-Sentinel™ were identified by morphology, sexed and counted. Suggested identification keys were ECDC (2012) and MosKeyTool V2.1 (Gunay et al. 2018). Samples of adults were preserved in 96% ethanol and/or cold preserved at -20/-80 °C to confirm identification if needed (e.g., via molecular tools).

Method step description:

1. The sampling protocol for Pan-European surveillance of AIM species (AIMSurv harmonized the sampling methods, frequency, minimum length of the sampling period and the form of reporting. There were minimum requirements (Minimum Requirements Protocol; MRP) about the type of samples (i.e., eggs in ovitraps), number of sampled sites, number of traps and frequency of collecting samples. Teams with more resources were suggested to follow a Recommended protocol (RP) to either increase number of samplings and/ or, additionally to eggs, sample other life stages such as adults. The use of a common platform for data collection was also suggested, the VECMAP® App system was made freely available by Avia-GIS to all participants during AIMSurv activities. For the MRP, all teams performed the survey in three sampling sites separated by 10 Km or more. Five oviposition traps (ovitraps) per site were placed and separated by 15 to 100 m. The type of ovitrap was selected by each team according to their availability in the region but usually consisted of 250 to 1000 ml capacity black containers filled with tap water. One scratched wooden tongue depressor (1.7x15 cm) per ovitrap, was used as a substrate for oviposition. Some teams used similar size pieces of Masonite board (when part of a pre-existing surveillance network). The selected sampling sites shared a similar environment, when possible, in urban and/or peri-urban areas (e.g., a garden of single-family houses in residential urban/peri-urban areas, public parks near residential areas, recreational areas). The frequency of sample collection was biweekly over a minimum of three months that must include the population peak of the targeted AIM species (e.g., in Spain: from September to November). The following parameters were recorded: latitude and longitude of the position of each trap; the name of municipality/county/district (according to the country) and locality; start and end date of each trapping event (e.g., a period of 14 days / 2 weeks for ovitraps); land use according to VECMAP® categories (urban, peri-urban and others); count of each life stage collected, including absences (0 values); finally, trap status (e.g., missing, broken, empty, etc.) per trapping event was also recorded. The more ambitious RP sampling included additional sampling sites sharing similar or different environments (e.g., urban areas, rural areas, high altitude areas, etc), again with five ovitraps per site, weekly sampling frequency and sampling length during the whole seasonality of the AIM species including start, peak and end of the mosquito season (e.g., May to November in Central Europe). In addition, sampling adults using one BG-Sentinel™ (Biogents, Germany) trap baited with BG-Lure™ (Biogents, Germany) and/or CO2 per site under a sampling frequency of one trap/night per week was also included. The use of VECMAP® to report the data was also suggested in the RP. Parameters to record were the same as for the MRP plus the daily or weekly record of meteorological parameters (maximum, minimum, average temperature) per site, collected using data loggers or local weather stations. For the processing of samples, collected eggs of AIM species were counted. For every location, a sub-sample (2 out of 5 ovitrap substrates per locality) of eggs was reared to confirm the species by larva/adult morphology, particularly in those areas where several AIM species are present (i.e., Ae. albopictus and Ae. japonicus). Alternatively, species were identified using MALDI-TOF MS or other molecular methods (e.g., DNA sequencing). Adult of AIM species collected in BG-Sentinel™ were identified by morphology, sexed and counted. Suggested identification keys were ECDC (2012) and MosKeyTool V2.1 (Gunay et al. 2018). Samples of adults were preserved in 96% ethanol and/or cold preserved at -20/-80 °C to confirm identification if needed (e.g., via molecular tools).

Collection Data

Additional Metadata