Burden of Arthropod-borne viruses (Arboviruses) increasing constantly in recent years causing health problem worldwide. Also in Europe these viruses were increasingly reported, with relevant health problems, like the Chikungunya epidemic in Italy in 2007, with about 200 human cases.
The surveillance of those viruses could be achieved by surveillance on arthropod vectors. Entomological surveillance can highlight the circulation of a virus early in the season and providing quantifiable information on intensity of virus transmission by data on mosquito infection rates, and consequently providing information on potential risk to humans and animals. Field data confirmed that, if mosquito trapping effort is intensive, detection of Arbovirus in mosquitoes precede appearance of animal and human cases.
The Biobank gives the opportunity to conserve sampled arthropods after analysis for future research works. Particularly these samples could be useful to study the population genetic of collected mosquitoes, or detect further viruses and discovering new ones possibly present in the samples. Moreover the Biobank will form over the years an historical archive over the years, able to give feedback to the presence of pathogens on the surveyed territory.
Quality controls
Sampled arthropods are identified according to adequate morphological keys and place, day and number of specimens per pool recorded. Applied PCRs on collected pools are recorded.
Updated to July 2022
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