Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of infectious diseases, and cause more than one million deaths each year worldwide. Mosquitoes are among the main vectors of diseases, especially arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya, etc). The precise identification of mosquito species is an essential step for the laboratories involved in the surveillance and control of these diseases with high epidemic potential.
As part of the Medilabsecure project coordinated by the Institut Pasteur, a free software was developed by a team from IRD in Montpellier to identify the 128 species of mosquitoes (including the larval stage) currently recorded in all countries of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.
MosKeyTool allows the identification through an intuitive multicriteria approach (morphology and distribution features) using a set of proposed choices. More than 1000 illustrations (photos, diagrams and distribution maps) are provided in this tool. This user-friendly tool has been designed for teachers, students, medical entomologists, parasitologists and all human or animal health agents involved in mosquito surveillance and control.
Funded by the European Commission, Medilabsecure aims to build capacity within a network of 55 laboratories working on emerging viruses in 19 countries of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region. It encompasses laboratories from the Institut Pasteur in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
For more information, please visit Medilabsecure