AJTMH Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 77(4), 2007, pp. 667-671
Copyright © 2007 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Genetic Influences on Mosquito Feeding Behavior and the Emergence of Zoonotic Pathogens

A. Marm Kilpatrick*, Laura D. Kramer, Matthew J. Jones, Peter P. Marra, Peter Daszak, AND Dina M. Fonseca*
Consortium for Conservation Medicine, New York, New York; Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Slingerlands, New York; Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Albany; Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland; Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, National Zoological Park, Washington, District of Columbia; Rutgers University, Center for Vector Biology, New Brunswick, New Jersey

The feeding behavior of vectors influences the likelihood of pathogen invasion and the exposure of humans to vector-borne zoonotic pathogens. We used multilocus microsatellite genetic typing of an introduced mosquito vector and DNA sequencing of mosquito blood meals to determine the impact of hybrid ancestry on feeding behavior and the emergence of West Nile virus (WNV). The probability of ancestry of Culex pipiens mosquitoes from two bionomically divergent forms, form molestus and form pipiens, influenced the probability that they fed on humans but did not explain a late summer feeding shift from birds to humans. We used a simple model to show that the occurrence of pure form molestus mosquitoes would have decreased the likelihood of WNV invasion (R0 in bird populations) 3- to 8-fold, whereas the occurrence of pure forms pipiens mosquitoes would have halved human exposure compared with the hybrids that are present. Data and modeling suggest that feeding preferences may be influenced by genetic ancestry and contribute to the emergence of vector-borne pathogens transmitted by introduced species, including malaria, and dengue, Chikungunya, yellow fever, and West Nile viruses.

Received March 14, 2007. Accepted for publication July 2, 2007.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Carolyn Bahnck, Amy Farrell, Tapan Ganguly, and the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Sequencing Facility for GeneScan analyses. We also thank the field crews of 2004 and 2005 (especially H. Brightman, J. Norton, and R. Peters); participants of the Smithsonian’s Neighborhood Nestwatch program, and residents in Foggy Bottom, Bethesda, and Takoma Park; the staff of Fort Dupont Park, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery of Art, and the Hirshhorn museum for permission to use their property; the Tuckers for providing logistical support, and the Wadsworth Center Molecular Genetics core for DNA sequencing and primer preparation. We are indebted to Norbert Becker, George O’Meara, and William Petrie for sending us specimens of Cx. pipiens complex from Germany, Florida, and the Cayman Islands, respectively.

Financial support: This work was funded by NIAID Contract NO1-AI-25490, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Grant 2003-0209-000, NSF Grant EF-0622391 as part of the joint NSF-NIH Ecology of Infectious Disease program, and core funding to the Consortium for Conservation Medicine from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.

* Address correspondence to A. Marm Kilpatrick, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, 460 W. 34th St., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001. E-mail: kilpatrick{at}conservationmedicine.org or Dina M. Fonseca, Rutgers University, Center for Vector Biology, NJ 180 Jones Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901. E-mail: dinafons{at}rci.rutgers.edu

Authors’ addresses: A. Marm Kilpatrick and Peter Daszak, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, 460 W. 34th St., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001, Telephone: 212-380-4473, E-mails: kilpatrick{at}conservationmedicine.org, daszak{at}conservationmedicine.org. Laura D. Kramer and Matthew J. Jones, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, 5668 State Farm Rd., Slingerlands, NY 12159, Telephone: 518-869-4524, E-mails: ldk02{at}health.state.ny.us, mjj05{at}health.state.ny.us. Peter P. Marra, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, National Zoological Park, 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008, Telephone: 202-633-1594, E-mail: marrap{at}si.edu. Dina M. Fonseca, Rutgers University, Center for Vector Biology, NJ 180 Jones Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901, Telephone: 732-932-3146, E-mail: dinafons{at}rci.rutgers.edu.

Reprint requests: A. Marm Kilpatrick, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, 460 W. 34th St., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001. E-mail: kilpatrick{at}conservationmedicine.org or Dina M. Fonseca, Rutgers University, Center for Vector Biology, NJ 180 Jones Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Telephone: 732-932-3146, E-mail: dinafons{at}rci.rutgers.edu.






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