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• Worldwide distribution
• > 3450 species and subspecies (38 genera)
• Great habitat diversity
• Approximately 40 million years older than humans
(fossils from Eocene, 38-54 mya)
Mosquito
Gnat
Mosquito Characteristics
Patterns on the
external egg
surface are
species specific
Egg stage comparison
CULEX Egg Raft
(2) Embryonation – 2 options
• OR
• Diapause required
– Triggered by decreasing day length.
Anopheles
(4) Pupa – Lighter than water
• Non-feeding
• Respiration
Pupal Stage Comparison
Anopheline Culicine
Mosquito Pupa and Larvae
Anopheles Pupa and Larvae
Mosquito Emerging
from Pupal Exuvia
(5) Adults
• Emergence Adult Stage Comparison
• Mating
• Feeding
Anopheline Culicine
females
Comparison of
male and
female
Anophelines
Culicine
vs. Culicines
Anopheline
males
Behavior
• Activity
• Host Specificity
– Zoophilous
– Anthropophilous
– Ornithophilous
HABITAT
Medical Importance
• Biting Nuisance (annoyance)
• Arboviruses
– Numerous (Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever,
WNV, JE, SLE, EEE, WEE, VEE).
• Filariasis
– Bancroftian and Brugian filariasis.
• Malaria
– 4 plasmodium species
Malaria History
• Ronald Ross (1897)
• Malaria Eradication?
• Between 350 and 500 million clinical
episodes of malaria occur every year.
• Host
• Reservoir
• Distribution
Anopheles
gambiae
WHO/TDR/HOLT Studios,
1992
Global Distribution
Distribution
• Distribution Model
Distribution
• Endemic /
Epidemic Risk
Areas
Distribution
• Duration of Malaria
Transmission Season.
•
Distribution
Start / End of Transmission Season
Distribution
• Population
Distribution
Filariasis History
• (2) Subperiodic
Infection
VECTORS
• Pathogen:
• Host:
Reservoir
• Transovarial
Transmission
Central and South America
Yellow Fever Transmission
Cycle
Vectors:
• Haemagogus spp. (jungle)
• Transovarial
Transmission
Distribution
Diagnosis and Symptoms
• Most infections are mild, but the disease can cause
severe, life-threatening illness.
5. Second mosquito 6
ingests virus with blood
6. Virus replicates
in mosquito midgut 7
and other organs,
infects salivary
glands
5
7. Virus replicates
in salivary
glands
Distribution
Recent Dengue in the U.S.A.
(Texas)
• Dengue epidemics occurred in the USA in the
1800s and the first half of the 1900s.
• Recent indigenous transmission
– 1980: 23 cases, first locally acquired since 1945
– 1986: 9 cases
– 1995: 7 cases
– 1997: 3 cases
– 1998: 1 case
– 1999: 18 cases
• Lack of recent transmission likely due to changes in
life-style
Reasons for Dengue
Expansion in the Americas
• Extensive vector infestation, with declining vector
control
• Reservoir:
• Pathogen:
Transmission
• Mainly bird/mosquito
cycle.
• Habitat:
Bridge VECTORS
East and Gulf Coast
• Ae. taeniorhynchus,
Ae. sollicitans
Florida
• Culex nigripalpis
Inland
• Ae. vexans,
Coquillattidia perturbans
Signs and Symptoms
• Most people infected with EEE do not become ill
and others may have only a mild influenza-like illness
with fever, headache and sore throat. In rare cases,
infection of the central nervous system can occur,
causing sudden fever, muscle pains and a headache
of increasing severity often followed by seizures and
coma.
• About 50% of these human cases are fatal, with young
children and the elderly most at risk.
• Symptoms in humans usually occur from 4 to 10 days
after the bite of an infected mosquito.
St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE)
• Distribution: West of Mississippi River, Florids, Ohio
River Valley, NJ and NY. Everywhere in the U.S.
except New England area.
• Reservoir:
• Pathogen:
Distribution
Transmission
• Bird/mosquito cycle
• Humans and
mammals are dead
end hosts.
• Transovarial
transmission in lab,
but probably not in
nature.
VECTORS
• Culex pipiens pipiens (Northern House)
• Culex nigripalpus
• Culex tarsalis
Signs and Symptoms
• Mild infections occur without apparent symptoms other
than fever with headache. More severe infection is
marked by headache, high fever, neck stiffness,
stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, occasional
convulsions (especially in infants) and spastic (but
rarely flaccid) paralysis.
• Reservoir:
• Pathogen:
Transmission
• See handout
• Treatment is supportive.
LaCrosse Encephalitis (LE)
• Distribution: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Tennessee. Some in Western U.S, but not common.
• Reservoir:
• Pathogen:
Transmission
• See handout!
• Ochlerotatus hendersoni
• Treatment is supportive.
West Nile Virus (WNV)
• Distribution: throughout the United States
• Disease: 1999 first case in the U.S., NY.
• Reservoir:
• Pathogen:
• Bird/mosquito
cycle.
• Virus cycles in
the birds blood
for a few days.
VECTORS
• Culex pipiens (East)
• Adult Control
– Residual house-spraying
– Insecticide-impregnated
bed-nets
– Eradication
Malaria Control
RESEARCH
• $40 million into research!
• DNA, other molecular techniques
• Release Programs
• Drugs, vaccines
• Control
• Ecology, Biology, Behavior
• Education