A new invasive species of mosquito known to carry viruses, including yellow fever, has been discovered in Florida, scientists warned.
Aedes scapularis mosquitoes have been confirmed in two southern Florida counties – Miami-Dade and Broward – but are now at risk of spreading along the Gulf of Florida and the Atlantic coast, according to a study co-authored by Lawrence Reeves, entomologist and research scientist at the University of Florida.
So far, the insects have been found mainly in the Caribbean and Latin America, NPR reported.
In Brazil, they were found infected with “a number of diseases”, such as the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the yellow fever virus, Reeves told the channel.
It is not clear whether the infected species actually spread the viruses they carry, but as outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases – more recently, dengue fever – have emerged in Florida, the researchers say the discovery is important.
Lindsay Campbell, co-author of the study with Reeves, said that Aedes scapularis mosquitoes are known to like to enter the home – and they feed on wild animals and people.
This is worrying because species that are capable of transmitting between animals, specifically including bats, and humans create “the primary condition for an overflow event,” Campbell told NPR.
Scientists investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic said last month that the virus “probably” originated from bats.
Reeves first identified Aedes scapularis in 2019 among the mosquitoes he collected near Everglades National Park in southern Florida.
In a follow-up study in November 2020, Reeves found that the species is “established” in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
But his new study, co-authored with Campell, suggests that mosquitoes will continue to spread north.
Reeves also noted that Aedes scapularis is one of 10 new species of invasive mosquitoes found in Florida since 2000, due to factors including climate change, international travel and global trade.
He predicts that more worrying species are on the way.
“A lot of people are concerned about Aedes vittatus. [It] it is a kind of vector for practically everything that concerns us: dengue, chikungunya, Zika, ”he told NPR.
Aedes vittatus is originally from India, but was found just 145 kilometers south of the Florida coast in Cuba.