Source: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV submitted to
VECTOR BIOLOGY: THE ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF VECTOR-BORNE PATHOGEN TRANSMISSION
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1013476
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
NC02630
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Oct 1, 2017
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2022
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Reiskind, M.
Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV
(N/A)
RALEIGH,NC 27695
Performing Department
Entomology and Plant Pathology
Non Technical Summary
This project will examine mosquito vector ecology at three scales: landscapes, habitats, and individuals. It ties these three scales together by using population genetics and genomics. There are three objectives, each of which contain specific planned studies. The first objective is to understand the landscape distribution of diverse mosquito assemblages involved in the transmission of a pathogen, the dog heartworm. This work will be done in North Carolina. The second is to track the distribution of containerAedesmosquitoes that are vectors for Zika, chikungunya, and dengue viruses. This work will be done in North Carolina and Florida. The second objective is to examine how variation in the larval environment affects adult characteristics important in the transmission of disease. In this project, I will vary inputs into the larval environment, including number of competitors, species of competitors, and nutrients, along with abiotic conditions like temperature. Then, I will examine the characteristics of the adults that emerge from these habitats: size, fecundity (females), survival, and insemination capacity (males). The final objective will use genetic and genomic tools to understand the relationship between populations of mosquitoes, their movement, and the role of evolution in shaping current and future distributions of important vectors of disease.
Animal Health Component
5%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
70%
Applied
15%
Developmental
15%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7213110107050%
7223830111025%
7224030117025%
Knowledge Area
722 - Zoonotic Diseases and Parasites Affecting Humans; 721 - Insects and Other Pests Affecting Humans;

Subject Of Investigation
3110 - Insects; 3830 - Pets (companion animals); 4030 - Viruses;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 1110 - Parasitology; 1170 - Epidemiology;
Goals / Objectives
The major goalof this project isto discover the connections, across ecological scales, betweenthe biology of insect vectors of disease and the risk of pathogen transmission. We focus on the organimsal biology of arthropod vectors, from the levels of indivdidual physiology up through landscape levels. We use a variety of ecological theory and tools to guide our inquiry, including animal movement, intra- and inter-specfiic interactions, population genetics and genomics, and GIS/Spatial analyses. We have three specific goals supported by this project: 1. Characterize the landscape determinants of mosquito species diversity and distributions and use population genetic tools to understand how mosquitoes may move around the landscape; 2. Understand the community ecology of larval mosquitoes, with an emphasis on containerAedesspecies; and 3. Connect the individual, larval behavioral and physiologicalecology of containerAedeswith important adult characteristics critical to the transmission of disease.
Project Methods
METHODS: LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY OF MOSQUITOESMapping Mosquitoes in the Landscape. I will conduct studies at the landscape scale examining the distribution of mosquitoes. These will be used to make associations between abiotic landscape factors and mosquito distributions. This will build on sampling in 2015 and 2016 in Wake County, NC to examine the effect of human disturbance on mosquito assemblages (Spence and Reiskind, in prep.). We will ask two specific questions: how does the distribution of adult mosquitoes change the transmission of dog heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis)? And: What factors underlie adult distribution?I will address the first question by conducting a case-control study in which cases are locations of dog heartworm positive dogs (from the Wake County Animal Control database) and controls are dogs negative for dog heartworm (but also picked up by WCAC). This case-control study is a powerful design to examine differences between locations with a known, recent history of disease and locations without disease. We will examine these locations for differences in local land-use and demography, and also trap adult mosquitoes to look for differences in mosquito assemblage (diversity, abundance, evenness) and prevalence of D. immitis in vectors.I will attack the underlying causes of adult mosquito distribution by testing the hypothesis that larval habitat limits adult distributions. This sounds obvious, but presents difficulty in testing due to the widespread and cryptic nature of many larval habitats. We have several approaches to overcome these logistical problems, including intensive sampling over small areas, the use of drone technology to detect larval habitats, and manipulation of habitat availability at the scale of landscapes. This requires an investment in mosquito natural history and descriptive ecology, but within a robust, hypothesis testing framework.In addition to the work on mosquito assemblages, I will also collect landscape data focused on container Aedes mosquitoes in North Carolina and Florida. The North Carolina data will be collected in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and colleagues from Eastern Caroilna University and Western Carolina University. Florida data will be collected by my laboratory, and will resample transects in Palm Beach County sampled in 2006-7 (Reiskind and Lounibos, 2013) and 2013 (Hopperstad and Reiskind, 2016). LARVAL HABITATS AND INDIVIDUALSLarval Habitats. One aspect of my research program will examine variation in larval habitats and how that influences adult mosquito characteristics. Examination of larval habitats in the field may also be used to help inform how landscape determines mosquito distribution. Adults that come from larval habitat may be assessed for individual characteristics, including physiology and behavior. Two aspects of larval habitat variation are nutrient to larvae ratio (e.g. relative density) and temperature. I will vary both to generate adult mosquitoes are various sizes.Adult Physiology. Individual mosquitoes, generated from various larval environments, may be assessed for a number of physiological outcomes. These include size, longevity under benign and stressful conditions, fecundity (females), response to infection challenge (females), and insemination capacity (males). All blood feeding will be conducted using artificial methods, avoiding the direct involvement of animals or humans.Adult behavior. In addition to assessing how larval environment influences the physiology of individual mosquitoes, I may also examine impacts on adult behavior. These may include oviposition behavior, sexual behavior and/or host-seeking behavior.POPULATION GENETICS AND GENOMICSI will use genetic data from container Aedes mosquitoes captured in landscape ecology studies to examine how populations of mosquitoes may be diverging from one another, how habitat interacts with gene flow, and how genetic signals reflect landscape distributions. We will use traditional population genetic approaches (gene sequencing, nuclear microsatellites) and next generation approaches (e.g. RADtags, SNPs) to examine the patterns and test phylogeographic hypothesis of species/population history. I have done this, with my student Kristen Hopperstad, at a regional level, but I will now focus on population genetics and genomics at the scale of the landscape.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:This was a strange reporting time. However, I have continued to engage with our target audience of professionals in the mosquito control arena, public health professionals in government, and concerned citizens. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the reporting period, I matriculated two PhD students, both of whom are employed. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This year has been strange, but we have reported results through publications and poster/talks at meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In this oddest of years we have a down turn in our lab size, having matriculated two PhD students and not recruiting a new student due to lack of funding AND COVID19. We have now pulled in two new students (one PhD, one MS) and will embark on some new projects.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We published several manuscripts that have addressed these goals, including publications connecting vector diversity and risk of pathogen transmission. We also als examined the population distribution of Aedes albopictus in North Carolina as a function of landscape structure determined by LIDAR data. We have also examined patteners of insecticide resistance and also control.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Comparative vector efficiency of two prevalent mosquito species for dog heartworm in North Carolina MR Spence Beaulieu, MH Reiskind Journal of medical entomology 57 (2), 608-614
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Context-Dependent Accuracy of the BG-Counter Remote Mosquito Surveillance Device in North Carolina CA Day, SL Richards, MH Reiskind, MS Doyle, BD Byrd Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 36 (2), 74-80
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Efficacy and Spatial Extent of Yard-Scale Control of Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) Using Barrier Sprays and Larval Habitat Management B Hollingsworth, P Hawkins, AL Lloyd, MH Reiskind Journal of medical entomology 57 (4), 1104-1110
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Assessing Insecticide Resistance in Adult Mosquitoes: Perspectives on Current Methods SL Richards, BD Byrd, MH Reiskind, AV White Environmental Health Insights 14, 1178630220952790
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: TITLE CITED BY YEAR Estimations of Fine-Scale Species Distributions of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Eastern Florida KA Hopperstad, MF Sallam, MH Reiskind Journal of Medical Entomology 58 (2), 699-707 1 2021 Mosquito diversity and dog heartworm prevalence in suburban areas MRS Beaulieu, JL Federico, MH Reiskind Parasites & vectors 13 (1), 1-12 3 2020 Short-Term, Large-Area Survey of Container Aedes spp. (Diptera: Culicidae): Presence and Abundance is Associated with Fine-scale Landscape Factors in North & MH Reiskind, DM Styers, I Hayes, SL Richards, MS Doyle, EMX Reed, ... Environmental Health Insights 14, 1178630220952806
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Mosquito diversity and dog heartworm prevalence in suburban areas MRS Beaulieu, JL Federico, MH Reiskind Parasites & vectors 13 (1), 1-12


Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I matriculated one PhD student in reporting period, as well as provided training for environmental health professionals at various government levels. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Myself and my students regularly present at scientific meetings and at the North Carolina Mosquito and Vector Control Association, of which I was the editor in chief of the newsletter during the reporting period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have many on-going projects that will continue with data collection, data analysis, writing, and publications.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have continued to make progress towards these goals. We have an active collaboration supported by an NSF project examining the biodiversity of mosquitoes in both an ecological and evolutionary context. I have a graduate student who completed herPhD focusing on the connection between mosquito diversity and dog heartworm transmission. We continute to examine the connection between landscapes and container Aedes distributions.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Spence Beaulieu, M.R., Hopperstad, K.A., Dunn, R.R., Reiskind, M.H. 2019. Simplification of vector communities during suburban succession. PLoS One https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215485.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Spence Beaulieu, M.R., Federico, J.L., Reiskind, M.H. 2020. Mosquito diversity and dog heartworm prevalence in suburban areas. Parasites and Vectors. DOI: 10.1186/s13071-019-3874-0
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Deguenon, J.M., Zhu, J., Denning, S., Reiskind, M.H., Watson, D.W., and Roe, R.M. 2019. Control of filth flies, Cochliomyia macellaria (Diptera: Culicidae), Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae), and Sarcophaga bullata (Diptera: Culicidae) using novel plant-derived methyl ketones. Journal of Medical Entomology, in press.


Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:We target both public health professionals (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, local county health departments/environmental health/mosquito control). Changes/Problems:We had no major problems nor do we need to make changes, just too much to do! What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I am currently training 3 PhD students, all of whose work is informed and contributes to this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I regularly engage through scientiific meetings, bespoke workshops, and other venues with our communities of interest. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will conitnue to work along towards the aforementioned goals, and have initiated a project to tackle goal 3, which we only made preliminary progress on in the last year.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have made novel discoveries about the distribution and diversity of mosquitoes. We have worked at the landscape scale to determine the how land-use and land change affect mosquito diversity, and we have examined the potential consequences in an animal pathogen (the dog heartworm). We have continued to examine community ecology, with a current focus on comparative behavior between container mosquitoes.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Richards, S.L., White, A.V., Byrd, B.D., Reiskind M.H., Doyle, M.S. 2018. Evaluation of Insecticide Resistance in Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in North Carolina, 2017. Journal of Medical Entomology, tjy216, https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjy216.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Reed, E. M. X, B. D. Byrd, S. Richards, M. Echkart, C. Williams, and M. H. Reiskind. 2018. A statewide survey of container Aedes spp. (Diptera: Culicidae) in North Carolina, USA 2016: A multiagency response to Zika Using ovitraps. Journal of Medical Entomology DOI: doi: 10.1093/jme/tjy190.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2019 Citation: Mongahan, A.J., Hayden, M.H., Smith, K.A., Reiskind, M.H., Cabell, R., Ernst, K.C. 2018. A simple model to predict the potential distribution of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes one month in advance. In press at The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.