The Canarian Ministry of Health has activated the protocol provided for in the Entomological Surveillance System after the detection of three adult specimens and a mosquito larva of the species Aedes albopictus in one of the traps located in a greenhouse in Tacoronte, Tenerife.
The company that owns the greenhouse has stopped its activity to prevent the movement of workers in the area and collaborate with surveillance tasks, for which a security perimeter has been established around the area to carry out a diagnosis of the situation and location. of possible breeding sites, as well as placing a greater number of traps.
The samples by the Medical Entomology Laboratory of the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands (IUETSPC), dependent on the University of La Laguna (ULL), were morphologically identified as specimens that belong to the species identification Aedes albopictus.
The work team has moved to the area without having observed any more specimens or breeding sites in the rest of the traps located in the nearby area, eminently agricultural and without the presence of nearby population centers.
After these tasks, the number of traps placed in the areas close to the detection point has been reinforced and the sampling frequency has been increased, so that the traps will be reviewed on a weekly basis.
The island of Tenerife has been monitored for the detection of this type of mosquitoes since 2013 through the installation of 196 specific traps (total in the Canary Islands: 635 traps), 21 of them were installed in the greenhouse where these specimens were detected.
In September of this year, 18 months have passed since the last detection of the mosquito Aedes aegypti on the island of La Palma, which could lead to being able to declare the eradication of the vector in this area, as was done in May 2019 with the detection on the island of Fuerteventura in 2017. The last mosquito detection Aedes aegypti Occurred last December in a home in Santa Cruz de Tenerifeafter which tracking, fumigation, trapping and surveillance were carried out without detecting any specimen in the area since then.
The sting of Aedes albopictus It does not imply the spread of diseases that are not already present in the Islands. It is a black mosquito with stripes, smaller than those common in our territory, which appears more in urban environments and has adapted to reproduce in small water points generated by man.
It usually bites during the day and not at night and its bite generates a strong inflammatory reaction that is accompanied by great stinging. It moves nimbly near the ground and does not produce any hum.
Mosquitoes that bite humans need to be breeding very close to them. That is why the most effective measure against them is to monitor or eliminate their breeding points.
