A wide range of arthropod-borne viruses threaten both human and animal health either through their presence in Europe or through risk of introduction. Prominent among these is West Nile virus (WNV), primarily an avian virus, which has caused multiple outbreaks associated with human and equine mortality. Endemic outbreaks of West Nile fever have been reported in Italy, Greece, France, Romania, Hungary, Russia and Spain, with further spread expected. Most outbreaks in Western Europe have been due to infection with WNV Lineage 1. In Eastern Europe WNV Lineage 2 has been responsible for human and bird mortality, particularly in Greece, which has experienced extensive outbreaks over three consecutive years. Italy has experienced co-circulation with both virus lineages. The ability to manage this threat in a cost-effective way is dependent on early detection. Targeted surveillance for pathogens within mosquito populations offers the ability to detect viruses prior to their emergence in livestock, equine species or human populations. In addition, it can establish a baseline of mosquito-borne virus activity and allow monitoring of change to this over time. Early detection offers the opportunity to raise disease awareness, initiate vector control and preventative vaccination, now available for horses, and encourage personal protection against mosquito bites. This would have major benefits through financial savings and reduction in equid morbidity/mortality. However, effective surveillance that predicts virus outbreaks is challenged by a range of factors including limited resources, variation in mosquito capture rates (too few or too many), difficulties in mosquito identification, often reliant on specialist entomologists, and the sensitive, rapid detection of viruses in mosquito pools. Surveillance for WNV and other arboviruses within mosquito populations varies between European countries in the extent and focus of the surveillance. This study reviews the current status of WNV in mosquito populations across Europe and how this is informing our understanding of virus epidemiology. Key findings such as detection of virus, presence of vector species and invasive mosquito species are summarized, and some of the difficulties encountered when applying a cost-effective surveillance programme are highlighted.

One year after the first autochthonous transmission of West Nile virus (WNV) to birds and horses in Germany, an epizootic emergence of WNV was again observed in 2019. The number of infected birds and horses was considerably higher compared to 2018 (12 birds, two horses), resulting in the observation of the first WNV epidemy in Germany: 76 cases in birds, 36 in horses and five confirmed mosquito-borne, autochthonous human cases. We demonstrated that Germany experienced several WNV introduction events and that strains of a distinct group (Eastern German WNV clade), which was introduced to Germany as a single introduction event, dominated mosquito, birds, horse and human-related virus variants in 2018 and 2019. Virus strains in this clade are characterized by a specific-Lys2114Arg mutation, which might lead to an increase in viral fitness. Extraordinary high temperatures in 2018/2019 allowed a low extrinsic incubation period (EIP), which drove the epizootic emergence and, in the end, most likely triggered the 2019 epidemic. Spatiotemporal EIP values correlated with the geographical WNV incidence. This study highlights the risk of a further spread in Germany in the next years with additional human WNV infections. Thus, surveillance of birds is essential to provide an early epidemic warning and thus, initiate targeted control measures.

The recent emergence in Europe of invasive mosquitoes and mosquito-borne disease associated with both invasive and native mosquito species has prompted intensified mosquito vector research in most European countries. Central to the efforts are mosquito monitoring and surveillance activities in order to assess the current species occurrence, distribution and, when possible, abundance, in order to permit the early detection of invasive species and the spread of competent vectors. As active mosquito collection, e.g. by trapping adults, dipping preimaginal developmental stages or ovitrapping, is usually cost-, time- and labour-intensive and can cover only small parts of a country, passive data collection approaches are gradually being integrated into monitoring programmes. Thus, scientists in several EU member states have recently initiated programmes for mosquito data collection and analysis that make use of sources other than targeted mosquito collection. While some of them extract mosquito distribution data from zoological databases established in other contexts, community-based approaches built upon the recognition, reporting, collection and submission of mosquito specimens by citizens are becoming more and more popular and increasingly support scientific research. Based on such reports and submissions, new populations, extended or new distribution areas and temporal activity patterns of invasive and native mosquito species were found. In all cases, extensive media work and communication with the participating individuals or groups was fundamental for success. The presented projects demonstrate that passive approaches are powerful tools to survey the mosquito fauna in order to supplement active mosquito surveillance strategies and render them more focused. Their ability to continuously produce biological data permits the early recognition of changes in the mosquito fauna that may have an impact on biting nuisance and the risk of pathogen transmission associated with mosquitoes. International coordination to explore synergies and increase efficiency of passive surveillance programmes across borders needs to be established.

The Asian bush or rock pool mosquito Aedes japonicus japonicus is one of the most expansive culicid species of the world. Being native to East Asia, this species was detected out of its original distribution range for the first time in the early 1990s in New Zealand where it could not establish, though. In 1998, established populations were reported from the eastern US, most likely as a result of introductions several years earlier. After a massive spread the mosquito is now widely distributed in eastern North America including Canada and two US states on the western coast. In the year 2000, it was demonstrated for the first time in Europe, continental France, but could be eliminated. A population that had appeared in Belgium in 2002 was not controlled until 2012 as it did not propagate. In 2008, immature developmental stages were discovered in a large area in northern Switzerland and bordering parts of Germany. Subsequent studies in Germany showed a wide distribution and several populations of the mosquito in various federal states. Also in 2011, the species was found in southeastern Austria (Styria) and neighbouring Slovenia. In 2013, a population was detected in the Central Netherlands, specimens were collected in southern Alsace, France, and the complete northeastern part of Slovenia was found colonized, with specimens also present across borders in adjacent Croatia. Apparently, at the end of 2013 a total of six populations occurred in Europe although it is not clear whether all of them are completely isolated. Similarly, it is not known whether these populations go back to the same number of introductions. While entry ports and long-distance continental migration routes are also obscure, it is likely that the international used tyre trade is the most important mode of intercontinental transportation of the mosquito. Aedes j. japonicus does not only display an aggressive biting behaviour but is suspected to be a vector of various disease agents and to displace indigenous culicid species. Therefore, Aedes j. japonicus might both cause public health problems in the future and have a significant impact on the biodiversity of the invaded territories.

As a result of globalization and climate change, Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens, the causative agents of dirofilariosis in Europe, continue to spread from endemic areas in the Mediterranean to northern and northeastern regions of Europe where autochthonous cases of dirofilarial infections have increasingly been observed in dogs and humans. Whilst D. repens was recently reported from mosquitoes in putatively non-endemic areas, D. immitis has never been demonstrated in mosquitoes from Europe outside the Mediterranean.

Mosquitoes collected from mid-December 2020 to early March 2021 from hibernacula in northeastern Germany, a region of West Nile virus (WNV) activity since 2018, were examined for WNV-RNA. Among the 6101 mosquitoes tested in 722 pools of up to 12 specimens, one pool of 10 Culex pipiens complex mosquitoes collected in early March 2021 in the cellar of a medieval castle in Rosslau, federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, tested positive. Subsequent mosquito DNA analysis produced Culex pipiens biotype pipiens. The pool homogenate remaining after nucleic acid extraction failed to grow the virus on Vero and C6/36 cells. Sequencing of the viral NS2B-NS3 coding region, however, demonstrated high homology with virus strains previously collected in Germany, e.g., from humans, birds, and mosquitoes, which have been designated the East German WNV clade. The finding confirms the expectation that WNV can overwinter in mosquitoes in Germany, facilitating an early start to the natural transmission season in the subsequent year. On the other hand, the calculated low infection prevalence of 0.016–0.20%, depending on whether one or twelve of the mosquitoes in the positive pool was/were infected, indicates a slow epidemic progress and mirrors the still-hypoendemic situation in Germany. In any case, local overwintering of the virus in mosquitoes suggests its long-term persistence and an enduring public health issue.