Journal
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY
Volume 49, Issue 4, Pages 903-916Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1603/ME11272
Keywords
Culex tarsalis; Culex pipiens; bloodmeal; host identification; host diversity
Categories
Funding
- Mosquito Research Foundation of California
- University of California-Davis Department of Entomology
- National Institutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [AI55607]
- Research and Policy for Infectious Disease Dynamics (RAPIDD) program of the Science & Technology Directorate
- Department of Homeland Security
- Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
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West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) is now endemic in California across a variety of ecological regions that support a wide diversity of potential avian and mammalian host species. Because different avian hosts have varying competence for WNV, determining the blood-feeding patterns of Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) vectors is a key component in understanding the maintenance and amplification of the virus as well as tangential transmission to humans and horses. We investigated the blood-feeding patterns of Culex tarsalis Coquillett and members of the Culex pipiens L. complex from southern to northern California. Nearly 100 different host species were identified from 1,487 bloodmeals, by using the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI). Cx. tarsalis fed on a higher diversity of hosts and more frequently on nonhuman mammals than did the Cx. pipiens complex. Several WNV-competent host species, including house finch and house sparrow, were common bloodmeal sources for both vector species across several biomes and could account for WNV maintenance and amplification in these areas. Highly competent American crow, western scrub-jay and yellow-billed magpie also were fed upon often when available and are likely important as amplifying hosts for WNV in some areas. Neither species fed frequently on humans (Cx. pipiens complex [0.4%], Cx. tarsalis [0.2%]), but with high abundance, both species could serve as both enzootic and bridge vectors for WNV.
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