Explore the vast range of titles available.

Mosquito insecticide resistance (IR) is a growing global issue that must be addressed to protect public health. Vector control programs (VCPs) should regularly monitor local mosquito populations for IR and plan control measures accordingly. In some cases, state/federal resources financially support this testing with expertise and/or training programs. Standardization of methods (eg, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bottle bioassay, World Health Organization tube testing, dose-mortality bioassay) for monitoring IR must be prioritized. One solution is regional hubs of IR monitoring at the state or other level. Training programs on methodology and interpretation of results should be developed and routinely offered to local VCPs conducting IR testing in mosquitoes. Here, current methods for assessing mosquito IR are discussed and insights into a variety of questions from VCPs are considered. It is critical that methods for IR monitoring and data interpretation are standardized through routine training, with the goal of evidence-driven decision making to improve control of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne disease.

The use of synthetic insecticides has been a solution to reduce mosquito-borne disease transmission for decades. Currently, no single intervention is sufficient to reduce the global disease burden caused by mosquitoes. Problems associated with extensive usage of synthetic compounds have increased substantially which makes mosquito-borne disease elimination and prevention more difficult over the years. Thus, it is crucial that much safer and effective mosquito control strategies are developed. Natural compounds from plants have been efficiently used to fight insect pests for a long time. Plant-based bioinsecticides are now considered a much safer and less toxic alternative to synthetic compounds. Here, we discuss candidate plant-based compounds that show larvicidal, adulticidal, and repellent properties. Our discussion also includes their mode of action and potential impact in mosquito disease transmission and circumvention of resistance. This review improves our knowledge on plant-based bioinsecticides and the potential for the development of state-of-the-art mosquito control strategies.

ABSTRACT Globally, mosquito‐borne diseases (MBD) cause the highest morbidity and mortality in humans and animals. Currently, in Canada, endemic MBDs that are significant public health problems are all zoonoses and are caused primarily by West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, and Californian serogroup viruses, including the Jamestown Canyon and the Snowshoe hare viruses. The transmission cycles of these viruses are changing, linked to global population movements (including vectors) and climate and land use changes. Here, we present the state of knowledge, related to MBDs in Canada, as well as salient surveillance approaches carried out to monitor them and their infection rates. We propose a few theoretical and operational research avenues in order to improve our understanding of transmission cycle changes, as well as the potential of new surveillance tools such as citizen science, metagenomics, artificial intelligence, and remote sensing to help reduce disease burdens on Canadians. This will support public and animal health responses to these zoonoses and help proactively manage such diseases under changing environmental conditions.

A number of mosquito-borne viruses (MBVs), such as dengue virus (DENV), zika virus (ZIKV), chikungunya (CHIKV), West Nile virus (WNV), and yellow fever virus (YFV) exert adverse health impacts on the global population. and are the prime vectors responsible for the transmission of these viruses. The viruses have acquired a number of routes for successful transmission, including horizontal and vertical transmission. Transovarial transmission is a subset/type of vertical transmission adopted by mosquitoes for the transmission of viruses from females to their offspring through eggs/ovaries. It provides a mechanism for these MBVs to persist and maintain their lineage during adverse climatic conditions of extremely hot and cold temperatures, during the dry season, or in the absence of susceptible vertebrate host when horizontal transmission is not possible. The publications discussed in this systematic review were searched for using the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, and websites such as those of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, using the search terms \"transovarial transmission\" and \"mosquito-borne viruses\" from 16 May 2023 to 20 September 2023. A total of 2,391 articles were searched, of which 123 were chosen for full text evaluation, and 60 were then included in the study after screening and removing duplicates. The present systematic review focuses on understanding the above diseases, their pathogenesis, epidemiology and host-parasite interactions. The factors affecting transovarial transmission, potential implications, mosquito antiviral defense mechanism, and the control strategies for these mosquito-borne viral diseases (MBVDs) are also be included in this review.

Background Estimates of the geographical distribution of Culex mosquitoes in the Americas have been limited to state and provincial levels in the United States and Canada and based on data from the 1980s. Since these estimates were made, there have been many more documented observations of mosquitoes and new methods have been developed for species distribution modeling. Moreover, mosquito distributions are affected by environmental conditions, which have changed since the 1980s. This calls for updated estimates of these distributions to understand the risk of emerging and re-emerging mosquito-borne diseases. Methods We used contemporary mosquito data, environmental drivers, and a machine learning ecological niche model to create updated estimates of the geographical range of seven predominant Culex species across North America and South America: Culex erraticus , Culex nigripalpus , Culex pipiens , Culex quinquefasciatus , Culex restuans , Culex salinarius , and Culex tarsalis . Results We found that Culex mosquito species differ in their geographical range. Each Culex species is sensitive to both natural and human-influenced environmental factors, especially climate and land cover type. Some prefer urban environments instead of rural ones, and some are limited to tropical or humid areas. Many are found throughout the Central Plains of the USA. Conclusions Our updated contemporary Culex distribution maps may be used to assess mosquito-borne disease risk. It is critical to understand the current geographical distributions of these important disease vectors and the key environmental predictors structuring their distributions not only to assess current risk, but also to understand how they will respond to climate change. Since the environmental predictors structuring the geographical distribution of mosquito species varied, we hypothesize that each species may have a different response to climate change. Graphical abstract

Due to their vectorial capacity, mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) receive special attention from health authorities and entomologists. These cosmopolitan insects are responsible for the transmission of many viral diseases, such as dengue and yellow fever, causing huge impacts on human health and justifying the intensification of research focused on mosquito-borne diseases. In this context, the study of the virome of mosquitoes can contribute to anticipate the emergence and/or the reemergence of infectious diseases. The assessment of mosquito viromes also contributes to the surveillance of a wide variety of viruses found in these insects, allowing the early detection of pathogens with public health importance. However, the study of mosquito viromes can be challenging due to the number and complexities of steps involved in this type of research. Therefore, this article aims to describe, in a straightforward and simplified way, the steps necessary for obtention and assessment of mosquito viromes. In brief, this article explores: the capture and preservation of specimens; sampling strategies; treatment of samples before DNA/RNA extraction; extraction methodologies; enrichment and purification processes; sequencing choices; and bioinformatics analysis.

Discarded vehicle tires serve as habitat for mosquito vectors. In New Orleans, Louisiana, discarded tires are an increasingly important public concern, especially considering that the city is home to many medically important mosquito species. Discarded tires are known to be associated with mosquito abundance, but how their presence interacts with other socioenvironmental gradients to influence mosquito ecology is poorly understood. Here, we ask whether discarded tire distribution could be explained by social factors, particularly median income, home vacancy and human population density, and whether these factors interact with urban heat islands (UHI) to drive mosquito vector assemblages. We surveyed tire piles across the city and adult mosquitoes in 12 sites, between May and October of 2020. We compared this data with the social indicators selected and UHI estimates. Our results show that median income and human population density were inversely related to tire abundance.Tire abundance was positively associated with Aedes albopictus abundance in places of low heat (LS) severity. Heat was the only predictor for the other monitored species, where high heat corresponded to higher abundance of Aedes aegypti, and LS to higher abundance of Culex quinquefasciatus. Our results suggest that low-income, sparsely populated neighborhoods of New Orleans may be hotspots for discarded vehicle tires, and are associated with higher abundances of at least one medically important mosquito (Ae. albopictus). These findings suggest potential locations for prioritizing source reduction efforts to control mosquito vectors and highlight discarded tires as a potential exposure pathway to unequal disease risk for low-income residents.

Earth Observation (EO) data can be leveraged to estimate environmental variables that influence the transmission cycle of the pathogens that lead to mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs). The aim of this scoping review is to examine the state-of-the-art and identify knowledge gaps on the latest methods that used satellite EO data in their epidemiological models focusing on malaria, dengue and West Nile Virus (WNV). In total, 43 scientific papers met the inclusion criteria and were considered in this review. Researchers have examined a wide variety of methodologies ranging from statistical to machine learning algorithms. A number of studies used models and EO data that seemed promising and claimed to be easily replicated in different geographic contexts, enabling the realization of systems on regional and national scales. The need has emerged to leverage furthermore new powerful modeling approaches, like artificial intelligence and ensemble modeling and explore new and enhanced EO sensors towards the analysis of big satellite data, in order to develop accurate epidemiological models and contribute to the reduction of the burden of MBDs.

The largest Muslim religious gathering in West Africa is celebrated every year in Senegal. The event, known as the ‘Grand Magal de Touba’ (GMT), marks the departure into exile of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké, the founder of the Mouridism, a Sufi Muslim order and attracts between four and five million pilgrims from all over the world to the holy city of Touba, located in the medical district of Diourbel. Like all mass gatherings, the GMT carries the risk of transmitting infectious diseases. An epidemiological surveillance programme aimed at assessing the burden of infectious diseases during the GMT has been set up by our team in recent years. As part of this programme, we analysed the clinical and microbiological data of patients with febrile illnesses, consulting during the GMT at the health centre in Mbacké, close to Touba.1 A total of 175 samples were collected from 2018 to 2022 from febrile patients (axillary temperature of at least 37.5°C), consulting spontaneously during the GMT week of free medical coverage. The medical team completed a demographic and clinically standardized questionnaire and obtained patient informed signed consent. Patients were actively proposed to be tested, free of charge, for blood pathogens by PCR. Blood was collected by vein puncture into an EDTA tube (BD vacutainer® K2E EDTA 18.0 mg, UK). After manual DNA extraction with the OMEGA kit and RNA with EZ1, according to the manufacturer’s recommendations, identification of Plasmodium falciparum and dengue virus was conducted by RT-qPCR, as previously described.1 Most febrile patients were living in Mbacké (73.1%) and Dakar (13.1%) or Thiès (3.4%), Kaolock (2.3%), Tabacounda (1.7%), Louga (1.7%), Kaffrine (1.1%), Casamance (0.6%), Fatick (0.6%), Kédougou (0.5%) or in other countries in Guinea-Bissau (1.1%) and Gambia (0.6%). Their mean age was 17 years (0–79 years), and 52.0% were male. A total of 33 (18.8%) patients were positive for P. falciparum and 9 (5.1%) for dengue virus (Table 1). The majority of malaria patients were living in Mbacké (51.7%) and Dakar (27.3%), followed by Tabacounda (6.1%), Casamance (3.0%), Louga (3.0%), Kédougou (3.0%) and Kaolack (3.0%) or Guinea-Bissau (3.0%). Given the short (9–14 days) falciparum malaria incubation time, infections were likely acquired a few days before the GMT took place. Their mean age was 16 years 7–79 years), and 69.6% were male. In Senegal, malaria is essentially due to P. falciparum and, to a lesser extent, to P. malariae and P. ovale,2 and its transmission is closely linked to rainfall from July to November. The major vectors predominant in Touba are An. funestus, An. gambiae, An. coluzzii and An. arabiensis.3 In 2021, 37 190 cases of malaria were confirmed in the Diourbel region, all due to P. falciparum.2 Despite a considerable decline over the years as a result of anti-vector control implemented by the relevant authorities, malaria still remains a threat during the GMT, which can promote its spread to the rest of the country and even beyond. Unlike at other religious mass gatherings where malaria is an imported disease, it is mostly an autochthonous disease at the GMT. In 2018, a DENV-3 dengue outbreak occurred in Touba during the GMT.4,5 We detected dengue virus once again during the GMT period in 2022, which suggests that epidemics could occur during future GMT events.

Diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes are a tremendous health and socioeconomic burden with hundreds of millions of people being impacted by mosquito-borne illnesses annually. Many factors have been implicated and extensively studied in disease transmission dynamics, but knowledge regarding how dehydration impacts mosquito physiology, behavior, and resulting mosquito-borne disease transmission remain underdeveloped. The lapse in understanding on how mosquitoes respond to dehydration stress likely obscures our ability to effectively study mosquito physiology, behavior, and vectorial capabilities. The goal of this review is to develop a profile of factors underlying mosquito biology that are altered by dehydration and the implications that are related to disease transmission.