Vectors Team

The Vectors Team brings together ASTRE researchers working on medical and veterinary entomological themes and models. The group coordinates, shares and integrates the resource platforms on the Baillarguet campus (laboratory and insectarium). In recognising the specificities of medical and veterinary entomology, this team makes it possible to better answer complex and integrated questions in vector ecology and the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases.

Vector-borne diseases have always had negative consequences for human and animal populations. In the 20th century, some of them have been controlled, particularly through insecticide use and/or therapeutic measures.

However, a number of factors have recently favoured the emergence or re-emergence of these diseases, with major impacts on public and veterinary health in Europe and tropical regions, particularly in Africa. These factors include the development of insecticide resistance  among vector populations and the reduction of the number of insecticidal molecules available due to their ecotoxicity, and global changes, in particular the intensification of trade, increased mobility of people and goods and the increasing anthropogenesis of the environment.

Major challenges for the prevention, surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases

  • Deepening knowledge on the ecology of vector systems
  • Developing effective prevention, surveillance and control methods
  • Providing multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral and multi-scale integration
  • Contributing to the recognition and visibility of the discipline
  • Consolidating an interconnected national and international multidisciplinary network

Our objectives: To characterise the bio-ecology of vector arthropods, to understand the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases and to develop surveillance and control tools

  • Characterising arthropod vectors of interest and their role in transmission.
  • Characterising the bio-ecology of arthropod vectors.
  • Understanding the eco-epidemiology of vector-borne diseases and the prediction of risk through an integrative approach and modelling.
  • Developing adapted surveillance tools.
  • Developing integrated and innovative tools and control strategies which respect the environment.
  • Ensuring provision of related training and expertise actions.

Our models: Arthropod vectors of interest in animal and human health

Our study models are haematophagous arthropods of major interest in animal or human health for Europe:

  • Culicoides: biting midges which are vectors of bluetongue virus (BTV), Schmallenberg virus, African horse sickness (AHS) and epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD).
  • Mosquitoes: vectors of zoonotic arboviruses, including Rift Valley fever (RVF) and West Nile fever (WNF).
  • Ticks: 
    • The hard ticks Amblyomma variegatum and A. hebraeum, vectors of Ehrlichia ruminantium, agent of cowdriosis (heartwater).
    • Hyalomma marginatum hard ticks, vector of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHF), and Rhipicephalus bursa: both species are suspected of transmitting the poxvirus of lumpy skin disease (LSD), newly established in Europe.
    • Orithodorous soft ticks, vectors of African swine fever virus (ASFV).
  • Glossines or tsetse flies: vectors of African human and animal trypanosomose.