TY - JOUR
T1 - High rate of non-human feeding by aedes aegypti reduces zika virus transmission in South Texas
AU - Olson, Mark F.
AU - Ndeffo-Mbah, Martial L.
AU - Juarez, Jose G.
AU - Garcia-Luna, Selene
AU - Martin, Estelle
AU - Borucki, Monica K.
AU - Frank, Matthias
AU - Estrada-Franco, José Guillermo
AU - Rodríguez-Pérez, Mario A.
AU - Fernández-Santos, Nadia A.
AU - Molina-Gamboa, Gloria De Jesús
AU - Aguirre, Santos Daniel Carmona
AU - Reyes-Berrones, Bernardita De Lourdes
AU - Cortés-De La Cruz, Luis Javier
AU - García-Barrientos, Alejandro
AU - Huidobro-Guevara, Raúl E.
AU - Brussolo-Ceballos, Regina M.
AU - Ramirez, Josue
AU - Salazar, Aaron
AU - Chaves, Luis F.
AU - Badillo-Vargas, Ismael E.
AU - Hamer, Gabriel L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - Mosquito-borne viruses are emerging or re-emerging globally, a_icting millions of people around the world. Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, is the principal vector of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses, and has well-established populations across tropical and subtropical urban areas of the Americas, including the southern United States. While intense arboviral epidemics have occurred in Mexico and further south in the Americas, local transmission in the United States has been minimal. Here, we study Ae. aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus host feeding patterns and vertebrate host communities in residential environments of South Texas to identify host-utilization relative to availability. Only 31% of Ae. aegypti blood meals were derived from humans, while 50% were from dogs and 19% from other wild and domestic animals. In Cx. quinquefasciatus, 67% of blood meals were derived from chicken, 22% came from dogs, 9% from various wild avian species, and 2% from other mammals including one human, one cat, and one pig. We developed a model for the reproductive number, R0, for Zika virus (ZIKV) in South Texas relative to northern Mexico using human disease data from Tamaulipas, Mexico. We show that ZIKV R0 in South Texas communities could be greater than one if the risk of human exposure to Ae. aegypti bites in these communities is at least 60% that of Northern Mexico communities. The high utilization of non-human vertebrates and low risk of human exposure in South Texas diminishes the outbreak potential for human-amplified urban arboviruses transmitted by Ae. aegypti.
AB - Mosquito-borne viruses are emerging or re-emerging globally, a_icting millions of people around the world. Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, is the principal vector of dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses, and has well-established populations across tropical and subtropical urban areas of the Americas, including the southern United States. While intense arboviral epidemics have occurred in Mexico and further south in the Americas, local transmission in the United States has been minimal. Here, we study Ae. aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus host feeding patterns and vertebrate host communities in residential environments of South Texas to identify host-utilization relative to availability. Only 31% of Ae. aegypti blood meals were derived from humans, while 50% were from dogs and 19% from other wild and domestic animals. In Cx. quinquefasciatus, 67% of blood meals were derived from chicken, 22% came from dogs, 9% from various wild avian species, and 2% from other mammals including one human, one cat, and one pig. We developed a model for the reproductive number, R0, for Zika virus (ZIKV) in South Texas relative to northern Mexico using human disease data from Tamaulipas, Mexico. We show that ZIKV R0 in South Texas communities could be greater than one if the risk of human exposure to Ae. aegypti bites in these communities is at least 60% that of Northern Mexico communities. The high utilization of non-human vertebrates and low risk of human exposure in South Texas diminishes the outbreak potential for human-amplified urban arboviruses transmitted by Ae. aegypti.
KW - Aedes aegypti
KW - Culex quinquefasciatus
KW - Host selection
KW - Reproductive number
KW - Zika virus
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083794097&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/v12040453
DO - 10.3390/v12040453
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 32316394
SN - 1999-4915
VL - 12
JO - Viruses
JF - Viruses
IS - 4
M1 - 453
ER -