Role As Disease Vectors
It is known that Aedes albopictus can transmit pathogens and viruses, such as the West Nile virus, Yellow fever virus, St. Louis encephalitis, dengue fever, and Chikungunya fever.
The Asian tiger mosquito was responsible for the Chikungunya epidemic on the French Island La Réunion in 2005–2006. By September 2006, there were an estimated 266,000 people infected with the virus, and 248 fatalities on the island. The Asian tiger mosquito was also the transmitter of the virus in the first and only outbreak of Chikungunya fever on the European continent. This outbreak occurred in the Italian province of Ravenna in the summer of 2007, and infected over 200 people. Evidently, mutated strains of the Chikungunya virus are being directly transmitted through Aedes albopictus particularly well and in such a way that another dispersal of the disease in regions with the Asian tiger mosquito is feared.
The tiger mosquito is also relevant to veterinary medicine. For example, tiger mosquitoes are transmitters of Dirofilaria immitis, a parasitic round worm that causes heartworm in dogs and cats.
Read more about this topic: Aedes Albopictus
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