Update of the species checklist of  Culicoides  Latreille, 1809 biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) of Morocco

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Abstract

Background

Investigations of Culicoides fauna, including inventories, were carried out in Morocco at different periods after the country had faced major bluetongue and African horse sickness outbreaks. However, no comprehensive reference publication has provided a clear overview of the Culicoides species diversity. This study reviewed available data on Culicoides biting midge species in Morocco from 1968 to 2015 (published and grey literature in French and English) in order to revise the current checklist, in light of state of the art taxonomic and systematic knowledge, and confirmed the checklist with morphological and molecular identifications of specimens collected from the region of Rabat.

Methods

Literature related to Culicoides collections in Morocco was collated. Authors were contacted to obtain raw data and additional information for the collections. Fresh Culicoides material was collected and examined from two sites around Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Each collected individual was examined and morphologically identified, if possible, to the species level. In addition, molecular identification was performed to separate closely related species, to confirm difficult morphological identifications and to confirm new species records.

Results

A total of 6121 individuals of Culicoides spp. were collected and analyzed and at least 17 species were identified: C. cataneii/C. gejgelensis, C. circumscriptus, C. fagineus, C. festivipennis, C. imicola, C. jumineri, C. kingi, C. longipennis, C. montanus, C. newsteadi, C. obsoletus, C. paolae, C. parotti, C. puncticollis, C. sahariensis, C. scoticus and C. subfagineus. Seven species were confirmed using phylogenetic analyses. Two new species records for Morocco are reported: C. paolae and C. subfagineus.

Conclusions

The Moroccan fauna of Culicoides now includes 54 valid species. Further work would certainly increase this total, as one of the clades we identified was not affiliated to any described and valid species.

Related collections

Most cited references 60

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Bluetongue in Europe: past, present and future.

Philip Mellor, James MacDonald (2009)

The recent arrival in Northern and Western (NW) Europe of bluetongue virus (BTV), which causes the ruminant disease 'bluetongue', has raised the profile of this vector-borne ruminant disease and sparked discussions on the reasons for its sudden emergence so far north. This expansion has not happened in isolation and the disease has been expanding into Southern and Eastern Europe for the last decade. This shifting disease distribution is being facilitated by a number of different introduction mechanisms including the movement of infected livestock, the passive movement of infected Culicoides on the wind and, in NW Europe, an unknown route of introduction. The expansion of BTV in Europe has forced a re-evaluation of the importance of Palaearctic Culicoides species in transmission, as well as the importance of secondary transmission routes, such as transplacental transmission, in facilitating the persistence of the virus. The current European outbreak of BTV-8 is believed to have caused greater economic damage than any previous single-serotype outbreak. Although attempts are being made to improve the capacity of European countries to cope with future BTV incursions, the options available are limited by a lack of basic entomological data and limited virological surveillance.

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African horse sickness.

Philip Mellor, Christopher Hamblin (2004)

African horse sickness virus (AHSV) causes a non-contagious, infectious insect-borne disease of equids and is endemic in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa and possibly Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula. However, periodically the virus makes excursions beyond its endemic areas and has at times extended as far as India and Pakistan in the east and Spain and Portugal in the west. The vectors are certain species of Culicoides biting midge the most important of which is the Afro-Asiatic species C. imicola. This paper describes the effects that AHSV has on its equid hosts, aspects of its epidemiology, and present and future prospects for control. The distribution of AHSV seems to be governed by a number of factors including the efficiency of control measures, the presence or absence of a long term vertebrate reservoir and, most importantly, the prevalence and seasonal incidence of the major vector which is controlled by climate. However, with the advent of climate-change the major vector, C. imicola, has now significantly extended its range northwards to include much of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece and has even been recorded from southern Switzerland. Furthermore, in many of these new locations the insect is present and active throughout the entire year. With the related bluetongue virus, which utilises the same vector species of Culicoides this has, since 1998, precipitated the worst outbreaks of bluetongue disease ever recorded with the virus extending further north in Europe than ever before and apparently becoming endemic in that continent. The prospects for similar changes in the epidemiology and distribution of AHSV are discussed.

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Development and validation of IIKC: an interactive identification key for Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) females from the Western Palaearctic region

Bruno Mathieu, Catherine Cêtre-Sossah, Claire Garros … (2012)

Background and methods The appearance of bluetongue virus (BTV) in 2006 within northern Europe exposed a lack of expertise and resources available across this region to enable the accurate morphological identification of species of Culicoides Latreille biting midges, some of which are the major vectors of this pathogen. This work aims to organise extant Culicoides taxonomic knowledge into a database and to produce an interactive identification key for females of Culicoides in the Western Palaearctic (IIKC: Interactive identification key for Culicoides). We then validated IIKC using a trial carried out by six entomologists based in this region with variable degrees of experience in identifying Culicoides. Results The current version of the key includes 98 Culicoides species with 10 morphological variants, 61 descriptors and 837 pictures and schemes. Validation was carried out by six entomologists as a blind trial with two users allocated to three classes of expertise (beginner, intermediate and advanced). Slides were identified using a median of seven steps and seven minutes and user confidence in the identification varied from 60% for failed identifications to a maximum of 80% for successful ones. By user class, the beginner group successfully identified 44.6% of slides, the intermediate 56.8% and the advanced 74.3%. Conclusions Structured as a multi-entry key, IIKC is a powerful database for the morphological identification of female Culicoides from the Western Palaearctic region. First developed for use as an interactive identification key, it was revealed to be a powerful back-up tool for training new taxonomists and to maintain expertise level. The development of tools for arthropod involvement in pathogen transmission will allow clearer insights into the ecology and dynamics of Culicoides and in turn assist in understanding arbovirus epidemiology.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Maria Bourquia: m.bourquia@iav.ac.ma

Claire Garros: claire.garros@cirad.fr

Ignace Rakotoarivony: ignace.rakotoarivony@cirad.fr

Laetitia Gardès: laetitia.gardes@cirad.fr

Karine Huber: karine.huber@cirad.fr

Intissar Boukhari: boukhari.intissar@gmail.com

Jean-Claude Delécolle: jean-claude.delecolle@numericable.fr

Thierry Baldet: thierry.baldet@cirad.fr

Antoine Mignotte: Antoine.mignotte@cirad.fr

Youssef Lhor: y.lhor@yahoo.fr

Khalid Khallaayoune: k.khallaayoune@iav.ac.ma

Thomas Balenghien: thomas.balenghien@cirad.fr

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Parasit Vectors

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Parasit Vectors

Title: Parasites & Vectors

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1756-3305

Publication date (Electronic): 24 September 2019

Publication date PMC-release: 24 September 2019

Publication date Collection: 2019

Volume: 12

Electronic Location Identifier: 459

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2097 1398, GRID grid.418106.a, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Unité Parasitologie et Maladies Parasitaires, ; 10100 Rabat, Morocco

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2097 0141, GRID grid.121334.6, ASTRE, Univ Montpellier, Cirad, INRA, ; Montpellier, France

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2153 9871, GRID grid.8183.2, Cirad, UMR ASTRE, ; 34398 Montpellier, France

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2153 9871, GRID grid.8183.2, Cirad, UMR ASTRE, ; 97490 Ste Clotilde, La Réunion France

[5 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2153 9871, GRID grid.8183.2, Cirad, UMR ASTRE, ; 97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe France

[6 ]Institut de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale de Strasbourg (IPPTS) EA7292, 3 rue Koeberlé, 67000 Strasbourg, France

[7 ]Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits Alimentaires, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire, 10015 Rabat, Morocco

[8 ]Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Unité Microbiologie, Immunologie et Maladies Contagieuses, 10100 Rabat, Morocco

Article

Publisher ID: 3720

DOI: 10.1186/s13071-019-3720-4

PMC ID: 6757417

PubMed ID: 31551074

SO-VID: d24dda1a-26b9-48f9-8588-31163a66aba5

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 27 May 2019

Date accepted : 14 September 2019

Funding

Funded by: Vectornet

Funded by: PHC Toubkal

Award ID: 36867VH

Award Recipient : Maria Bourquia

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100006319, Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique;

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Parasitology

Keywords: species diversity,inventory,culicoides,biting midges,rabat region,morocco

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Parasitology

Keywords: species diversity, inventory, culicoides, biting midges, rabat region, morocco

Update of the species checklist of Culicoides Latreille, 1809 biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) of Morocco

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Related collections

Malaria vaccine development

Most cited references 60

Bluetongue in Europe: past, present and future.

African horse sickness.

Development and validation of IIKC: an interactive identification key for Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) females from the Western Palaearctic region

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Contributors

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