The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) has probably made its home in Berlin. That would be the northernmost point of its spread in Germany. As reported by the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (Lageso), a tiger mosquito was detected in the same allotment garden where the animal was found in late summer 2021.
The authorities take this as proof that the animals overwintered there – only then can a large population develop. Although tiger mosquitoes have been appearing sporadically in Berlin since 2017, they were only brought in from southern regions and died again in winter.
The tiger mosquito is considered potentially dangerous because it can pick up and transmit more than 20 pathogens, including very serious infections such as dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. It has been spreading in Germany for a number of years, particularly well in the Upper Rhine Graben.
There, even eggs that have already been laid survive the winter in a drought-resistant state of rigidity. Experts therefore suspect that the mosquito is now permanently at home there. Since breeding populations were first detected in the extreme southwest of Germany in 2015, the tiger mosquito has established itself in large parts of Baden-Württemberg and Thuringia.
Being aggressive and often biting multiple people in a row, the tiger mosquito is very good at spreading pathogens quickly and effectively. So far, however, the risk of actually becoming seriously ill from a tiger mosquito bite is negligible in Germany.
The viruses are not yet widespread in Germany, so the mosquitoes have nowhere to pick them up. There is a risk when infected people arrive from endemic regions and are bitten by the mosquitoes. In this way, for example, an epidemic of Chikungunya fever occurred in Italy in 2017.
The original of this article “Up to 20 pathogens: tiger mosquito now native to Berlin” comes from Spektrum.de.
