Modelling the monthly abundance of Culicoides biting midges in nine European countries using Random Forests machine learning Plantentuin Meise / Agentschap Plantentuin Meise
Background: Culicoides biting midges transmit viruses resulting in disease in ruminants and equids such as bluetongue, Schmallenberg disease and African horse sickness. In the past decades, these diseases have led to important economic losses for farmers in Europe. Vector abundance is a key factor in determining the risk of vector-borne disease spread and it is, therefore, important to predict the abundance of Culicoides species involved in the ...