Arthropod vectors carry some of the most pervasive and debilitating human pathogens including mosquito-borne viruses of epidemic potential (dengue, chikungunya, and Zika), bacteria to include Rickettsia and Borrelia, and parasites like Plasmodium, Leishmania, Trypanosoma, Wuchereria among others. Climate change allows these vectors to extend beyond their current geographic boundaries, and in doing so, increases the population at risk for these vector-borne infections. Urbanization, migration, and encroachment increase the opportunity for human-vector contact and may provide more suitable habitats for some disease vectors. Some vector-borne pathogens have zoonotic reservoirs that carry potential for spillover to human hosts, the rate of which increases with human encroachment in certain niches. Understanding host-vector contact is essential for designing interventions to control the spread of vector-borne disease and for impimplementing surveillance to identify emerging vector-borne pathogens with epidemic potential.
Measurement of host-arthropod contact and drivers of disease transmission at the host-vector interface are critical to control vector-borne infections. However, observations of vector feeding are extremely difficult and therefore little is known about host-vector contact at the population level in natural systems. This collection seeks to assemble current advances in measurement of human-vector contact and exposure to pathogen-infected vectors in natural systems using innovative approaches including serological, genetic, metagenomic and spatial technologies. These observations will be extended to consider how to identify and exploit frailties or heterogeneities in order to improve interventions and surveillance.
Highlight unique features of vector-borne disease epidemiology by focusing on the vector-host interface -
• serological measures of host-vector contact in exposed populations
• surveillance of infectious diseases in vectors themselves (xenosurveillance)
• elucidating biting patterns and preferences (for example using blood meal typing)
• understanding vector behavioral mechanisms that underly pathogen success (i.e. feeding preference, feeding times, host-seeking)
• the effect of feeding bias on transmission
• implications of host-vector contact patterns for intervention design
• measuring spatial overlap of host-vector habitat to describe and predict contact patterns
• changes in host-vector contact driven by migration, environmental change or interventions
Arthropod vectors carry some of the most pervasive and debilitating human pathogens including mosquito-borne viruses of epidemic potential (dengue, chikungunya, and Zika), bacteria to include Rickettsia and Borrelia, and parasites like Plasmodium, Leishmania, Trypanosoma, Wuchereria among others. Climate change allows these vectors to extend beyond their current geographic boundaries, and in doing so, increases the population at risk for these vector-borne infections. Urbanization, migration, and encroachment increase the opportunity for human-vector contact and may provide more suitable habitats for some disease vectors. Some vector-borne pathogens have zoonotic reservoirs that carry potential for spillover to human hosts, the rate of which increases with human encroachment in certain niches. Understanding host-vector contact is essential for designing interventions to control the spread of vector-borne disease and for impimplementing surveillance to identify emerging vector-borne pathogens with epidemic potential.
Measurement of host-arthropod contact and drivers of disease transmission at the host-vector interface are critical to control vector-borne infections. However, observations of vector feeding are extremely difficult and therefore little is known about host-vector contact at the population level in natural systems. This collection seeks to assemble current advances in measurement of human-vector contact and exposure to pathogen-infected vectors in natural systems using innovative approaches including serological, genetic, metagenomic and spatial technologies. These observations will be extended to consider how to identify and exploit frailties or heterogeneities in order to improve interventions and surveillance.
Highlight unique features of vector-borne disease epidemiology by focusing on the vector-host interface -
• serological measures of host-vector contact in exposed populations
• surveillance of infectious diseases in vectors themselves (xenosurveillance)
• elucidating biting patterns and preferences (for example using blood meal typing)
• understanding vector behavioral mechanisms that underly pathogen success (i.e. feeding preference, feeding times, host-seeking)
• the effect of feeding bias on transmission
• implications of host-vector contact patterns for intervention design
• measuring spatial overlap of host-vector habitat to describe and predict contact patterns
• changes in host-vector contact driven by migration, environmental change or interventions
