Journal Article

Host attraction and host feeding patterns indicate generalist feeding of Culex pipiens s.s. and Cx. torrentium

Jöst, Hanna, Rauhöft, Leif, Șuleșco, Tatiana, Afonso, Sara M. Martins, Lühken, Renke, Kliemke, Konstantin, Lange, Unchana, Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas, Sauer, Felix Gregor, Jaworski, Linda, Wehmeyer, Magdalena Laura, Neumann, Markus, Kiel, Ellen

2024

Overview

Background Mosquito host feeding patterns are an important factor of the species-specific vector capacity determining pathogen transmission routes. Culex pipiens s.s./ Cx. torrentium are competent vectors of several arboviruses, such as West Nile virus and Usutu virus. However, studies on host feeding patterns rarely differentiate the morphologically indistinguishable females. Methods We analyzed the host feeding attraction of  Cx. pipiens and  Cx. torrentium  in host-choice studies for bird, mouse, and a human lure. In addition, we summarized published and unpublished data on host feeding patterns of field-collected specimens from Germany, Iran, and Moldova from 2012 to 2022, genetically identified as  Cx. pipiens  biotype pipiens ,  Cx. pipiens  biotype molestus ,  Cx. pipiens  hybrid biotype pipiens × molestus , and  Cx. torrentium , and finally put the data in context with similar data found in a systematic literature search. Results In the host-choice experiments, we did not find a significant attraction to bird, mouse, and human lure for  Cx. pipiens   pipiens and  Cx. torrentium . Hosts of 992 field-collected specimens were identified for Germany, Iran, and Moldova, with the majority determined as  Cx. pipiens   pipiens , increasing the data available from studies known from the literature by two-thirds. All four Culex pipiens s.s./ Cx. torrentium taxa had fed with significant proportions on birds, humans, and nonhuman mammals. Merged with the data from the literature from 23 different studies showing a high prevalence of blood meals from birds, more than 50% of the blood meals of Cx. pipiens s.s. were identified as birds, while up to 39% were human and nonhuman mammalian hosts. Culex torrentium fed half on birds and half on mammals. However, there were considerable geographical differences in the host feeding patterns. Conclusions In the light of these results, the clear characterization of the Cx. pipiens s.s./ Cx. torrentium taxa as ornithophilic/-phagic or mammalophilic/-phagic needs to be reconsidered. Given their broad host ranges, all four Culex taxa could potentially serve as enzootic and bridge vectors. Graphical Abstract

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,BMC
• Subject: Analysis / Animal feeding behavior / Animals / Arbovirus diseases / arboviruses / Behavior / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / biotypes / Birds / blood / Culex - classification / Culex - physiology / Culex - virology / Culex pipiens / Culex pipiens biotype molestus / Culex pipiens biotype pipiens / Culex pipiens hybrid biotype pipiens × molestus / Disease transmission / Entomology / enzootic diseases / Feeding Behavior / Female / Flavivirus - genetics / Flavivirus - isolation & purification / Flavivirus - physiology / Germany / Host attraction / Host feeding patterns / Host Specificity / Humans / hybrids / Infectious Diseases / Iran / Medical research / Medicine, Experimental / Mice / Moldova / Mosquito / Mosquito Vectors - classification / Mosquito Vectors - physiology / Mosquito Vectors - virology / Mosquitoes / Parasitology / Risk factors / Species Specificity / Tropical Medicine / Usutu virus / Vector-borne diseases / vectorial capacity / Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science / Virology / Virus-vector relationships / West Nile fever / West Nile virus / West Nile virus - genetics / West Nile virus - physiology