Evaluation of abundance and composition of Culicoides species in different areas of Alba-nia

Abstract

Culicoides are responsible for a number of diseases transmitted to the animals causing severe health conditions and great economic losses. The outbreak of bluetongue virus in Albania in 2014 and lumpy skin disease in 2016 strongly indicated the establishment of a sentinel herd surveillance in the country ruminant farms. Considering all evidence for Albania, investigation of species composition and abundance of Culicoides on livestock farms was performed in 10 sentinel sites. Ultraviolet-light traps (OVI-traps) were placed in selected sites for collection of Culicoides starting from April 15 to July 30, 2021. A total of 37,111 Culicoides midges from 18 different species were collected during the investigation. The most abundant species identified were C. newsteadi and C. obsoletus. More-over, three species were described for the first time in Albania (C. collessi, C. chiopterus and C. im-maculatus). Presence and abundance of the collected Culicoides spp. are associated with potential outbreak of diseases (i.e. bluetongue, ephemeral fever) linked with their transmission from Culi-coides.

Keywords

• albania
• bluetongue
• culicoides
• entomological surveillance
• vector-borne di¬sease