Environmental determinants of the distribution of Culicoides (Diptera˸ Ceratopogonidae), vectors of animal viruses of economic interest, in Morocco

• Main Author: Bourquia, Maria
• Other Authors: Animal, Santé, Territoires, Risques et Ecosystèmes (UMR ASTRE), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Montpellier SupAgro, Institut agronomique et vétérinaire Hassan II (Maroc), Claire Garros, Khalid Khallaayoune
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: Culicoide; Ecology; Morocco; Distribution; Abundance; Vector-Borne disease; Ecologie; Maroc; Abondance; Maladie vectorielle; [SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-04095501; https://theses.hal.science/tel-04095501/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-04095501/file/19-0020_Bourquia.pdf

Culicoides are small blood-biting midges, belonging to the Ceratopogonidae family, the genus is present on all land surfaces except Antarctica. A very small proportion of the diversity of Culicoides has an epidemiological role with a significant impact on human and animal health. A few numbers of species are known to be involved in the biological transmission of viruses, protozoa and helminths. Some species with mammophilic behaviour are important nuisances of human tourism or agroforestry activities and harass farm animals -recurrent summer dermatitis in horses-. Despite this veterinary importance, the Culicoides remain a poorly studied group of diptera. In order to better understand the distribution of Culicoides in Morocco, and to characterize the factors that determine their abundance, our study addressed 3 main components:The first concerned the revision of the diversity of Culicoides species in Morocco based on morphological and molecular approaches, which made it possible to update the list of species of the country. This also enabled us to describe at least eight vector species - known or potential - of viruses of economic importance in animal health, namely bluetongue virus -endemic since 2004-, African horse sickness virus -eradicated by vaccination, with a risk of reintroduction- and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) -absent since 2006-. This study also allowed us to describe new species for Moroccan fauna, namely Culicoides paolae, Culicoides subfagineus, Culicoides achrayi and Culicoides haranti.The second research component made it possible to characterize the diversity and seasonality of species of veterinary interest in different breeding (cattle, sheep, horses). It was concluded that species diversity remains the same regardless of the type of breeding, but that it varies greatly according to the season. Indeed, each species has its own seasonality with peaks of abundance at a specific period (s) of the year. It was concluded that the seasonal diet of Culicoides was typical of the ...