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Further specimens of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Diptera, Culicidae) trapped in southwest Germany

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Abstract

After two previous demonstrations of introductions of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, into southern Germany in 2007 and 2011, another three specimens were trapped in the city of Freiburg in the Upper Rhine Valley. The females were caught in early September 2011 (n = 2) and mid-July 2012 (n = 1). The trap was located at a railway container station where cargo is transferred to trains from trucks predominantly coming from southern Europe where A. albopictus is widely distributed. The reported findings confirm vehicle transport of A. albopictus to be an important and probably frequent mode of importation, and suggest that more regular and intense monitoring for invasive mosquito species in the Upper Rhine Valley should be undertaken in order to detect an establishment and implement adequate control measures in good time.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), grant number 2810HS022, and by the Robert Koch Institute, grant number 1362/1-982. We are grateful to Gerhard Geschke and Dietmar Kampen for operating the mosquito trap, to Brigitte Dannenfeld for excellent technical assistance in the laboratory and to Adrian Pont for critically reading the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Helge Kampen.

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Kampen, H., Kronefeld, M., Zielke, D. et al. Further specimens of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Diptera, Culicidae) trapped in southwest Germany. Parasitol Res 112, 905–907 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3128-y

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