Plasencia (EFE).- The National Association of Environmental Health Companies (Anecpla) has warned of the “unleashed” expansion of the tiger mosquito in Spain, favored by high temperatures, for which it has urged public administrations to reinforce the work of control.
In a note, Anecpla has indicated that “when we had already assumed that the presence of the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) in Spain had reached a point of no return and that its extinction was impossible, the detection in Galicia of this serious transmitter vector diseases such as dengue, zika or chikungunya, among others, confront us with a new scenario.
This is that its expansion “cannot but continue to grow” until it colonizes the national territory.
Accelerators of the expansion of the tiger mosquito
In this sense, the association has highlighted that the conditions cannot be more favorable: globalization and the progressive increase in temperatures, a product of climate change, are two of its main accelerators, “without any sign of remission, but rather quite the opposite”.
A panorama that, from Anecpla, insists that “it has to keep us on alert since our country plays a fundamental role, since it is located on a very important geographical axis of global transit.”
This has been explained by its general director, Jorge Galván, who has also warned that “Spain is the gateway for many other species of mosquitoes and other invasive species, with the risk to public health that this entails”.
Increase in surveillance, prevention and control measures
For all these reasons, he has stated that “it is essential that society as a whole, from public administrations to citizens, increase the appropriate surveillance, prevention and control measures that act as necessary containment in the expansion of this dangerous insect”.
Galván has warned of the “special difficulty” involved in the specific control of this species of Aedes, since it is a highly adaptable species that, although it needs humidity to reproduce, is also capable of surviving in its minimum conditions.
Likewise, the female, who is the one who lays the eggs, does so on the surface of the so-called “scuppers” -accumulations of water-.
But not in a unique way, but rather, to ensure the continuity of the species, it lays its eggs in several batches in different spaces, which greatly complicates its control.
Likewise, when temperatures rise, not only does the biological cycle of the tiger mosquito shorten, but also the viruses that have the capacity to transmit develop more quickly.
Anecpla has defended that collaboration between all social agents is “essential” and has called for alert systems to be activated by public bodies, responsible for coordinating the control services for this pest.
