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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

As part of our surveys of the invasive malaria vector Anopheles stephensi in four Sudanese states, including North and South Kordofan, Sennar, and White Nile, we collected 166 larvae. Our morphological identification confirmed that 30% of the collected mosquito samples were Anopheles species, namely An. gambiae s.l. and An. stephensi, while the 117 Aedes specimens were Ae. luteocephalus (39%), Ae. aegypti (32%), Ae. vexans (9%), Ae. vittatus (9%), Ae. africanus (6%), Ae. metalicus (3%), and Ae. albopictus (3%). Considering the serious threat of Ae. albopictus emergence for the public health in the area and our limited resources, we prioritized Ae. albopictus samples for further genomic analysis. We extracted the DNA from the three specimens and subsequently sequenced the cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) gene and confirmed their identity as Aedes albopictus and their potential origin by phylogenetic and haplotype analyses. Aedes albopictus, originating from Southeast Asia, is an invasive key vector of chikungunya and dengue. This is the first report and molecular characterization of Ae. albopictus from Sudan. Our sequences cluster with populations from the Central African Republic and La Réunion. Worryingly, this finding associates with a major increase in chikungunya and dengue outbreaks in rural areas of the study region and might be linked to the mosquito’s spread across the region. The emergence of Ae. albopictus in Sudan is of serious public health concern and urges for the improvement of the vector surveillance and control system through the implementation of an integrated molecular xenosurveillance. The threat of major arboviral diseases in the region underlines the need for the institutionalization of the One Health strategy for the prevention and control of future pandemics.

Details

Title
The First Molecular Detection of Aedes albopictus in Sudan Associates with Increased Outbreaks of Chikungunya and Dengue
Author
Ahmed, Ayman 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mustafa Abubakr 2 ; Hamza Sami 3 ; Mahdi, Isam 3 ; Mohamed, Nouh S 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zinsstag, Jakob 5 

 Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Khartoum 11111, Sudan; Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), CH-4123 Allschwil, Switzerland; Faculty of Science, University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland; Molecular Biology Unit, Sirius Training and Research Centre, Khartoum 11111, Sudan 
 Directorate of Environmental Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Khartoum 11111, Sudan 
 Directorate of the Integrated Vector Management (IVM), Federal Ministry of Health, Khartoum 11111, Sudan 
 Molecular Biology Unit, Sirius Training and Research Centre, Khartoum 11111, Sudan 
 Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), CH-4123 Allschwil, Switzerland; Faculty of Science, University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland 
First page
11802
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
ISSN
16616596
e-ISSN
14220067
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2724285087
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.