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Human and animal vector-borne diseases, particularly mosquito-borne diseases, are emerging or re-emerging worldwide. Six Aedes invasive mosquito (AIM) species were introduced to Europe since the 1970s: Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Ae. japonicus, Ae. koreicus, Ae. atropalpus and Ae. triseriatus. Here, we report the results of AIMSurv2020, the first pan-European surveillance effort for AIMs. Implemented by 42 volunteer teams from 24 countries. And presented in the form of a dataset named “AIMSurv Aedes Invasive Mosquito species harmonized surveillance in Europe. AIM-COST Action. Project ID: CA17108”. AIMSurv2020 harmonizes field surveillance methodologies for sampling different AIMs life stages, frequency and minimum length of sampling period, and data reporting. Data include minimum requirements for sample types and recommended requirements for those teams with more resources. Data are published as a Darwin Core archive in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility- Spain, comprising a core file with 19,130 records (EventID) and an occurrences file with 19,743 records (OccurrenceID). AIM species recorded in AIMSurv2020 were Ae. albopictus, Ae. japonicus and Ae. koreicus, as well as native mosquito species. This study was funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy) under the project ‘Coordinated surveillance actions on invasive alien species and emerging vector borne diseases’; the City Health Office of the City of Zagreb, within the ‘Program for monitoring invasive mosquito species in the area of the City of Zagreb in 2020’; the Consejería de Economía e Infraestructura of the Junta de Extremadura and the European Regional Development Fund, a Way to Make Europe, through the research project IB16135; Dirección de Salud Pública (Gobierno Vasco), Project EU-LIFE 18 IPC/ES/000001 (Urban Klima 2050) y Programa Estatal de Vigilancia de mosquitos en puertos y Aeropuertos, del Ministerio de Sanidad (Gobierno de España); EMME-CARE project, which has been funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement ID 856612); Institute of Zoology under the project EVOLANTER (project no. 20.80009.7007.02). RL is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) under the project NEED (grant no. 01Kl2022); LIFE CONOPS project (LIFE12 ENV/GR/000466), funded by the European Commission in the framework of the program LIFE + Environment Policy and Governance; Municipalities of Slovenia: City Municipality of Nova Gorica, City Municipality of Koper, Municipality of Izola, Municipality of Piran and Municipality of Ankaran; National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH grant numbers KH-130379, PD-135143, FK-138563 and K-135841). The research activity of KK was supported by the Janos Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and by the ÚNKP-20-5-PTE-597 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology; Portuguese National Program for Vector Surveillance (REVIVE) and we are particularly grateful to the regional workgroup of Algarve for the monitoring activities; PR (19_ECO_0070) project ‘Aves y Enfermedades Infecciosas Emergentes: Impacto de las Especies Exóticas y Migratorias en la transmisión de Malaria aviar y el virus del Nilo Occidental – AvEIEs’ from ‘Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica 2019’; project grant number 57 PCCDI/2018, grant agency ‘The Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation’ (UEFISCDI) Romania, ‘Collegium Talentum Programme’ of Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University’s ‘Homeland higher education study grant’; Slovak Research Agency VEGA nr. 2/0140/21; Vector Control Needs Assessment in Cyprus, contracted by the World Health Organization (reference 2020/1040069-0); Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia Regions (Regional Prevention Plans ‘Entomological Surveillance of vector-borne diseases’ in the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia Regions); the Institute of Public Health, Albania under the program of mosquitoes control in urban and coastal areas.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Specific tandem mass spectrometry settings applied for the detection and quantification of ivermectin and its metabolites. Table S2. Dual binary gradient flow program used for metabolism and fractioning assays. Table S3. Dual binary gradient flow program used for metabolism assays. Figure S1. Chromatogram before/after fractioning of the ivermectin metabolites. Table S4. Ivermectin metabolite compositionof each fraction. Table S5. Comparison of ivermectin metabolite Cmax pharmacokinetic levels with spiked blank blood samples. Figure S2. Screening for ivermectin metabolites effect on mosquito activity. Figure S3. Fit of the nonlinear model to calculate ivermectin, M1 and M2 LC50. Figure S4. Compound level above LC50 in whole blood for ivermectin, desmethyl-H2B1a (M1) and hydroxy-H2B1a (M2).

Gene drives are genetic elements in sexually reproducing organisms that skew the pattern of inheritance of a given characteristic. They can be used to spread a characteristic that can alter or even reduce the numbers of individuals in wild populations of a certain species. As they spread by being inherited from one generation to the next, they could persist in populations long-term. The spreading property of gene drives could be a source of great potential in areas as diverse as the control of disease vectors, invasive species, agricultural pests and predators of endangered species. However, the same property may make containment challenging and therefore may also pose novel envi- ronmental risks. The evaluation, distribution of risks and benefits and the fact that gene drives may be seen as a particularly profound interference with nature further raises novel ethical considerations., A Deplazes-Zemp, U Grossniklaus, F Lefort, P Müller, J Romeis, A Rüegsegger, N Schoenenberger, E Spehn (2020) Gene drives: benefits, risks and possible applications. Swiss Academies Factsheets 15 (4).

Gene Drives sind genetische Elemente, welche die Vererbungsrate eines bestimmten Merkmals bei sich sexuell fortpflanzenden Organismen erhöhen. Sie können verwendet werden, um eine Eigenschaft in freilebenden Populationen zu verbreiten und die Populationen dadurch zu verändern oder zu reduzieren. Da sich Gene Drives verbreiten, indem sie von einer Generation zur nächsten vererbt werden, könnten sie in Populationen langfristig bestehen bleiben. Die Fähigkeit von Gene Drives sich auszubreiten könnte grosses Potenzial für unterschiedlichste Anwendungsgebiete bieten, etwa die Bekämpfung von Krankheitsüberträgern, invasiven Arten, landwirtschaftlichen Schädlingen und Fressfeinden seltener Arten. Gleichzeitig könnte diese Eigenschaft den kontrollierten Umgang mit Gene Drives zur Herausforderung machen und daher auch neue Umweltrisiken mit sich bringen. Die Bewertung, die Verteilung von Risiken und Nutzen sowie die Tatsache, dass Gene Drives als besonders tiefgreifender Eingriff in die Natur angesehen werden können, werfen neue ethische Fragestellungen auf., A Deplazes-Zemp, U Grossniklaus, F Lefort, P Müller, J Romeis, A Rüegsegger, N Schoenenberger, E Spehn (2020) Gene Drives: Nutzen, Risiken und mögliche Anwendungen. Swiss Academies Factsheets 15 (4).

Les cassettes de forçage génétique (gene drives) sont des éléments génétiques d’organismes sexués qui modifient l’hérédité d’un caractère donné. On peut s’en servir pour répandre un caractère pour modifier des individus ou bien pour réduire leur nombre dans des populations sauvages d’une espèce donnée. Comme ils se propagent de génération en génération par hérédité, les gene drives pourraient persister durablement dans les populations. Leur capacité de propagation peut représenter une formidable source de possibilités pour des domaines tels que le contrôle des vecteurs de maladies, des espèces invasives, des ravageurs des cultures et des prédateurs d’espèces menacées. Cette même caractéristique peut cependant s’avérer difficile à confiner et donc générer de nouveaux risques environnementaux. L’évaluation, la répartition des risques et des bénéfices et le fait que les gene drives peuvent être considérés comme une intervention particulièrement profonde sur la Nature soulèvent de nouvelles considérations d’ordre éthique., A Deplazes-Zemp, U Grossniklaus, F Lefort, P Müller, J Romeis, A Rüegsegger, N Schoenenberger, E Spehn (2020) Le forçage génétique : bénéfices, risques et applications possibles. Swiss Academies Factsheets 15 (4).

Additional file 6: Figure S2. Comparison of the three trap types and number of mosquitoes that fed on the FTA card within a 48-hour trapping period. The histograms show the frequency of recorded blue mosquitoes per 48-hour trapping session (n = 80 for each trap type). The diamonds and horizontal bars below represent the average number of blue mosquitoes per 48-hour trapping session with 95% confidence intervals as estimated with the GLMM. Table S6. Mosquito feeding success on honey-baited FTA cards.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Modification of the BG-Sentinel trap. A cylinder-shaped chicken wire (34 × 10 cm) supports the two sticky cards inserted into the BG-Sentinel catch bag to avoid colour cross-contamination between mosquitoes. Figure S2. Performance of self-marking units with wild Ae. albopictus. Two colours, pink and yellow, were examined for their marking success and their impact on mosquito survival, and compared to a negative control (i.e. cheese cloth without fluorescent dust). a Marking success with the two different colours. While the marking success for yellow was very high, the success rate for pink was lower. b The survival of Ae. albopictus did not differ, neither between colours nor between a colour and the negative control (χ2 = 2, df = 2, P = 0.133). The reported male to female ratio is 1:6 and the survival of male and female Ae. albopictus did not differ (female χ2 = 4, df = 2, P = 0.1, male χ2 = 1.6, df = 2, P = 0.4). Figure S3. Total number of mosquito collected over the study period. The numbers on top of the bar represents the number of marked mosquitoes. Figure S4. Variation of daily mean temperature, mean relative humidity and precipitation during the study period in the two study sites. The blue bars show the daily precipitation in mm per day. Table S1. Number of recaptured Ae. albopictus during the two MRR studies in the annuli used for MDT calculation.

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is an invasive pest of considerable importance, affecting the production of vegetable and ornamental crops in many countries around the world. Severe yield losses are caused by direct feeding, and even more importantly, also by the transmission of more than 100 harmful plant pathogenic viruses. As for other invasive pests, increased international trade facilitates the dispersal of B. tabaci to areas beyond its native range. Inspections of plant import products at points of entry such as seaports and airports are, therefore, seen as an important prevention measure. However, this last line of defense against pest invasions is only effective if rapid identification methods for suspicious insect specimens are readily available. Because the morphological differentiation between the regulated B. tabaci and close relatives without quarantine status is difficult for non-taxonomists, a rapid molecular identification assay based on the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technology has been developed. This publication reports the detailed protocol of the novel assay describing rapid DNA extraction, set-up of the LAMP reaction, as well as interpretation of its read-out, which allows identifying B. tabaci specimens within one hour. Compared to existing protocols for the detection of specific B. tabaci biotypes, the developed method targets the whole B. tabaci species complex in one assay. Moreover the assay is designed to be applied on-site by plant health inspectors with minimal laboratory training directly at points of entry. Thorough validation performed under laboratory and on-site conditions demonstrates that the reported LAMP assay is a rapid and reliable identification tool, improving the management of B. tabaci.