Malaria resurgence risk in southern Europe: climate assessment in an historically endemic area of rice fields at the Mediterranean shore of Spain.

Background: International travel and immigration have been related with an increase of imported malaria cases. This fact and climate change, prolonging the period favouring vector development, require an analysis of the malaria transmission resurgence risk in areas of southern Europe. Such a study is made for the first time in Spain.

Haplotype H1 of Culex pipiens implicated as natural vector of Dirofilaria immitis in an endemic area of Western Spain.

Seven hundred and twenty five female culicid mosquitoes were captured in an area of Western Spain where Dirofilaria immitis is endemic. PCR was applied for the detection of larval D. immitis DNA in mosquitoes.

RDNA sequences of Anopheles species from the Iberian Peninsula and an evaluation of the 18S rRNA gene as phylogenetic marker in anophelinae.

The complete 18S rDNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-2 rDNA sequences were obtained from Anopheles atroparvus Van Thiel and Anopheles plumbeus Stephens from two areas of Spain. The number of nucleotide differences in the 18S rDNA of the two species is high compared with differences in the same gene of other invertebrate vectors. In Anopheles, short 18S rDNA sequences are richer in AT than the longer sequences, which are richer in GC and include extremely GC-biased expanded regions.