The genus has a worldwide distribution, except in Antarctica and New Zealand, and it has more than 1400 known species 15, 16. For SBV, although there is no molecular evidence or virus isolation, a high apparent seroprevalence of 56.6% has been reported 10.Ĭulicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) is a genus of the smallest blood-sucking flies, which measures up to 3 mm in size. However, there are some serological reports of BT 13, 14.
However, the status of BT and SBV is not well understood, which may be due to misdiagnosis of the diseases with other common ruminant diseases such as foot and mouth disease (FMD), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), lumpy skin disease, and sheep and goat pox, which cause similar clinical symptoms 12. From 2007 to 2010, about 737 outbreaks were reported in different parts of the country 11. The disease has also been reported outside Europe from Ethiopia 10.Įthiopia experiences serious and repeated outbreaks of AHS every year. SBV was first detected in Germany in 2011 and since then the disease has spread to almost all European countries 4. SBV is a recent arboviral disease known to cause abortions, stillbirths, and congenital malformations in cattle, sheep, and less commonly, goats 9. However, since 1998, an unprecedented spread of BT has been observed in the Mediterranean basin 8. BT has also historically been endemic in many countries located between 40° north and 35° south latitude 7. AHS disease is endemic in many parts of Africa, especially in the central and eastern parts of the continent, where it periodically makes short excursions beyond these areas 5, 6. AHS is a non-contagious viral disease of equids 1, 3 while BT, and SBV affect ruminants 1, 4. The habitat suitability model developed here could help researchers better understand where the above vector-borne diseases are likely to occur and target surveillance to high-risk areas.Īfrican horse sickness (AHS) and bluetongue (BT), as well as Schmallenberg virus (SBV), are among the best-known animal diseases transmitted by adult female Culicoides biting midges 1, 2, 3. kingi was found in central Ethiopia and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR). The Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, the southern and eastern parts of the country, and the areas along the Blue Nile and Lake Tana basins in northern Ethiopia were particularly suitable for C. Culicoides imicola has a larger suitability range compared to C. The ensemble model performed very well for both species with KAPPA (0.9), TSS (0.98), and ROC (0.999) for C. Climatic variables such as mean annual minimum and maximum temperature and mean annual rainfall were found to influence the catch of C.
The abundance of these two species was highly influenced by the agro-ecological zone of the capture sites and the proximity of the capture sites to livestock farms. Of the total 9148, 8576 of them belongs to seven species and the remaining 572 Culicoides were unidentified. During the study period, a total of 9148 Culicoides were collected from 66 trapping sites. kingi catch and various environmental and climatic factors.
Negative binomialregression models were used to evaluate the relationship between C.
In the ensemble modeling, models which score TSS values greater than 0.8 were considered. KAPPA True skill statistics (TSS) and ROC curve were used to evaluate the accuracy of species distribution models. kingi, an ensemble modeling technique was used with the Biomod2 package of R software. To develop the species distribution model for the two predominant Culicoides species, namely Culicoides imicola and C. Culicoides traps were set in different parts of the country from December 2018 to April 2021 using UV light Onderstepoort traps and the collected Culicoides were sorted to species level. This study was conducted to survey Culicoides species in different parts of Ethiopia and to develop habitat suitability for the major Culicoides species in Ethiopia. Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are the major vectors of bluetongue, Schmallenberg, and African horse sickness viruses.