Performing Department
Entomology and Plant Pathology
Non Technical Summary
The project will address the three main goals of the NE 1993. These are innovation in surveillance of disease vectors, understanding the distribution of native and invasive arthropod vectors, and improvement of control and management approaches. This project is crtiical because the target organisms, mostly mosquitoes and ticks, transmit hundreds of thousands of pathogens to people and animals every year, resulting in tens of thousands of cases of human disease. In some cases, these diseases are fatal, cause neurorlogical damage, or result in long-term after effects. The fact that they are transmitted by an arthropod provides a target to interrupt transmission. The first step is having an effective surveillance system, understanding where and when vectors are likely to be encountered by people (or animals), and knowing how best to interrupt pathogen transmission.Improvement in surveillance, which will come from both technological improvements as well as analytical advances, allow precise estimation of risk (critical for planning) as well as accurate targets for the provision of control. However, vector popualtions are not stable in their range, with notable changes in the distribution of both mosquito and tick vectors. Of particular concern is the invasion of the United States of America with exotic vectors, likeAedes albopictus(tiger mosquito),Aedes japonicus(bush mosquito), andHaemaphysalis longicornis(long-horned tick). Exotic, invasive organisms tend to expand rapidly, at least at first, and may take some time to settle into a range. This process is still on-going for the invasive vectors listed above.The final goal is perhaps the most important. Once we know what is here and where and when to find it, what can we do about it? To this end, we will test various control approaches, tailored to the particular need. In the case of mosquitoes, this may include traditional insecticide based approaches in conjunction more mosquito-specific approaches, as well as community approaches. Tick control, especially outside major Lyme disease areas, is not well formulate, and will be an area of research in this project.To summarize, this project will help determine what vectors we see in time and space, document the presence and importance of exotic vectors relative to native species, and how best to control these vector to prevent disease while minimizing damage to natural ecosystems.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Develop and strengthen effective surveillance and monitoring of disease vectors at local and regional scales, including the development and testing of novel trapping and vector/pathogen identification techniques. Under this objective, project participants will leverage and strengthen existing surveillance programs in a coordinated fashion to yield robust comparable data across large geographic scales.
Determine the ecology and geographic distribution of invasive and native disease vectors under changing environmental conditions to enhance our ability to predict conditions leading to existing and novel animal and human diseases.
Develop novel control and management interventions and test their impacts on the transmission of human and animal diseases.
Project Methods
We conduct surveys to map the distribution of vectors in time and space. For mosquitoes, we have a number of surveillance approaches, encompassing different life history stages for different species of mosquitoes.For surveys of containerAedesspp. mosquitoes we useovitraps, that capture the egg stage, BG-Sentinel traps to capture host-seeking females, and gravid traps to capture gravid females. We conduct long-term monitoring surveillance at a few spots around North Carolina, as well as targetted, hypothesis driven sampling to test landscape predictions focused on these mosquitoes. This may include experiments on different control approaches.In general, we bring trap samples back to the laboratory and identify them to species. Depending on the project and specific questions, we may also measure wing-lengths and assess parity using ovariole tracheation. The accurate assessment of mosqutio populations is a cornerstone to our project.We also have an interest in understanding the patterns of mosquito diversity. This is important because several other genera of mosquitoes, besides container-dwellingAedes,can serve as pathogen vectors. These includeAnophelesthat transmit malaria (human and avian),Culex(zoonotic arboviruses, and avian malaria), andCuliseta(eastern equine encephalitis virus, one fo the deadliest viruses in the world). All of these other mosquitoes can transmit dog heartworm, a fatal parasite to most carnivores. When we are surveying for a diversity of mosquitoes, we primiarly use CDC light traps, baited with CO2. We may also use larval surveys, although we do not commonly do this. In this case, trap contents are brought back to the laboratory for identification, and may be subsequently assayed for pathogens using real-time PCR approaches.We also survey for ticks. For tick surveys, we use a standard dragging technique, in which we drag a 1-m2? cloth behind a field collector, checking the cloth every 10m for ticks. Ticks are then stored in 95% ethanol, returned to the laboratory for identification, and then saved for subsequent testing (sometimes by the CDC).These are very general methods. Any given specific study would use specific methods, including randomized or structured sampling, specific laboratory techniques, and specific data analytic approaches.We share all data produced with other participants in the Multi-State, as well as local, state, and federal agencies (e.g. Wake County Enviornmental Health, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control).Knowledge generated from these methods will be disseminated through peer-reviwed journal articles, talks to professional societies (Entomological Society of America, American Mosquito Control Association), and direct communication with stake holders. The impact of the journal articles can be directly measured, but the other avenues are more difficult to assess. However, we will document changes in stakehold knowledge and behavior whenever possible.