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Q&A ViewAttendees 10

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad MUVE: Mosquitos, Biting Midges, and Flies

Novel sampling tools and host associations for enzootic vectors of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in Florida and Panama

Monday, November 1, 2021
9:00 AM – 9:12 AM MT
Location: Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room 503-504
In-Person Student Competition
Determining optimal sampling methods and host-associations for mosquitoes are among the first objectives in elucidating transmission cycles of vector-borne zoonotic disease, as sampling methods can differ based on species, location, and physiological state. The Spissipes section of the subgenus Melanoconion of Culex represent an understudied group of mosquitoes which transmit Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses (VEEV) in the western hemisphere. The objective of this study was to determine the collection methods needed for collecting both blood-engorged species of the Spissipes section of Culex (Melanoconion). We compared the number of mosquitoes collected using CDC-light traps, BG-sentinel traps, a novel mosquito drift fence, resting shelters, a small-diameter aspirator, and a large-diameter aspirator in Darién, Panama and Florida, USA, and analyzed all blood-engorged mosquitoes using bloodmeal analysis to determine host-feeding patterns. Traps that captured the majority of unfed females, captured relatively few blood-engorged females of Cx. cedecei, Cx. panocossa, and Cx. Spissipes with the distribution of unfed and blood-engorged females significantly different across trap types. Only Cx. pedroi was found to be sampled equally by the various trap types with respect to blood-engorged and unfed females. With respect to host-associations, in Panama, Cx. pedroi fed on mammals, Cx. spissipes fed from birds, mammals, and a reptile. In Florida, Cx. cedecei fed on primarily mammals whereas Cx. panocossa fed equally upon reptiles, birds, and mammals. Results of this study assure more efficient trapping techniques for future studies and further elucidate blood-feeding patterns of VEEV vectors and how they fit into the transmission cycle.