Invasive wild pigs are distributed across much of the U.S. and are hosts to tick vectors of human disease. Herein, adult ticks were collected from 157 wild pigs in 21 northern and central Florida counties from 2019-2020 during removal efforts by USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services personnel and evaluated for their potential to be used as a method of tick-borne disease surveillance. Collected ticks were identified, screened for pathogens, and the effects of landscape metrics on tick community composition and abundance were investigated. A total of 1415 adult ticks of four species were collected. The diversity of tick species collected from wild pigs was comparable to collections made throughout the state with conventional surveillance methods. All species collected have implications for pathogen transmission to humans and other animals. Ehrlichia, Anaplasma-like, and Rickettsia spp. were detected in ticks collected from wild pigs. These results suggest that tick collection from wild pigs is a suitable means of surveillance for pathogens and vectors. The strongest drivers of variation in tick community composition were the developed open space and mixed forest landcover classes. Fragmented shrub/scrub habitat was associated with increased tick abundance. Similar models may be useful in predicting tick abundance and distribution patterns.
Abstract 1. Vectorial capacity (VC) is a powerful tool for estimating a species’ importance in the transmission of vector-borne pathogens and predicting impacts of specific control measures on the transmission of those pathogens. However, VC is rarely estimated for zoonotic multi-vector, multi-host vector-borne disease (VBD) systems, due to the inherent difficulties of measuring several parameters, especially biting rate and daily probability of survival. 2. We present the Vector Potential Index (VPI), a novel metric for evaluating and comparing the potential of blood-feeding arthropod vectors to contribute to zoonotic VBD transmission using West Nile virus (WNV) in the eastern United States as a model system. Taking a meta-analysis approach, the VPI combines vector competence and host use data obtained from scientific literature to assign relative and absolute VPI ranks across species and transmission cycles. 3. Our case study of WNV demonstrates that the VPI framework effectively quantifies vector species’ potential to contribute to enzootic and epizootic transmission cycles. Most species exhibited low vector potential and although Aedes species were the most competent WNV vectors in the laboratory, only Culex species were assigned higher VPI ranks. Additionally, the VPI suggests that the contribution of Culex salinarius to WNV transmission in the U.S. may be greater than previously assumed based on assessments of individual parameters. Relative and absolute VPI ranks assigned to species aligned with recent work reviewing their role as vectors in the transmission cycles, indicating that by jointly considering vector competence and host use, the VPI provides a realistic approximation of a vector species’ potential to contribute to VBD transmission in the natural environment. 4. The VPI is a practical and highly versatile metric that is useful either as a stand-alone application or integrated with existing approaches, where it can be used to evaluate and compare vector species across different VBD systems or spatiotemporal scales at the species, population, or community level. We recommend the objective and reproducible VPI as a powerful yet simple tool for scientists and public health practitioners, where this trait-based approach has considerable potential to provide new insights into disease systems and enhance VBD surveillance and intervention strategies.
Species invasions represent a significant dimension of global change yet the dynamics of invasions remain poorly understood and are considered rather unpredictable. We explored interannual dynamics of the invasion process in the Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) and tested whether the advance of the invasion front of the species in North America relates to centrality (versus peripherality) within its estimated fundamental ecological niche. We used ecological niche modelling approaches to estimate the dimensions of the fundamental ecological niche on the Old World distribution of the species, and then transferred that model to the New World as measures of centrality versus peripherality within the niche for the species. Although our hypothesis was that the invasion front would advance faster over more favourable (i.e. more central) conditions, the reverse was the case: the invasion expanded faster in areas presenting less favourable (i.e. more peripheral) conditions for the species as it advanced across North America. This result offers a first view of a predictive approach to the dynamics of species' invasions, and thereby has relevant implications for the management of invasive species, as such a predictive understanding would allow better anticipation of coming steps and advances in the progress of invasions, important to designing and guiding effective remediation and mitigation efforts.
Mayaro virus (MAYV) can be spread from mosquitoes to humans. The geographic distribution of Mayaro virus is expanding from South and Central America into the Caribbean Islands, which means that, under the right conditions, this virus could one day become important to Florida. This publication is intended to serve as a fact sheet communicating information about MAYV to researchers and stakeholders in mosquito control and public health professions and to the general public.
Abstract Climatic change is dramatically altering phenology but generalities regarding tempo and mode of response remain limited. Here we present a general model framework incorporating spring temperature, velocity of spring warming, and species’ thermal requirements for predicting phenological response to warming. A key prediction of this framework is that species active earlier in the season and located in warmer regions where spring temperature velocity is lowest show strongest sensitivity to climatic change and greatest advancement in response to warming. We test this prediction using plant phenology datasets collected in the 1850s and 2010s. Our results strikingly confirm model predictions, showing that while temperature sensitivity is higher in regions with low temperature velocity, the greatest realized change in phenological onset is northern areas where warming rates have been fastest. Our framework offers enhanced utility for predicting phenological sensitivity and responsiveness in temperate regions and across multiple plant species and potentially other groups.
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