Ganser Claudia, Gregory Andrew J, McNew Lance B, Hunt Lyla A, Sandercock Brett K, Wisely Samantha M
Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 60506, U.S.A.
Department of Wildlife Ecology Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, U.S.A.
J Vector Ecol. 2016 Jun;41(1):114-22. doi: 10.1111/jvec.12202.
Infectious diseases increasingly play a role in the decline of wildlife populations. Vector-borne diseases, in particular, have been implicated in mass mortality events and localized population declines are threatening some species with extinction. Transmission patterns for vector-borne diseases are influenced by the spatial distribution of vectors and are therefore not uniform across the landscape. Avian malaria is a globally distributed vector-borne disease that has been shown to affect endemic bird populations of North America. We evaluated shared habitat use between avian malaria vectors, mosquitoes in the genus Culex and a native grassland bird, the Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), by (1) modeling the distribution of Culex spp. occurrence across the Smoky Hills of north-central Kansas using detection data and habitat variables, (2) assessing the occurrence of these vectors at nests of female Greater Prairie-Chickens, and (3) evaluating if shared habitat use between vectors and hosts is correlated with malarial infection status of the Greater Prairie-Chicken. Our results indicate that Culex occurrence increased at nest locations compared to other available but unoccupied grassland habitats; however the shared habitat use between vectors and hosts did not result in an increased prevalence of malarial parasites in Greater Prairie-Chickens that occupied habitats with high vector occurrence. We developed a predictive map to illustrate the associations between Culex occurrence and infection status with malarial parasites in an obligate grassland bird that may be used to guide management decisions to limit the spread of vector-borne diseases.
传染病在野生动物种群数量下降中所起的作用日益凸显。尤其是病媒传播疾病，已被认为与大规模死亡事件有关，局部种群数量下降正威胁着一些物种的灭绝。病媒传播疾病的传播模式受病媒空间分布的影响，因此在整个景观中并不均匀。禽疟是一种全球分布的病媒传播疾病，已被证明会影响北美地区的特有鸟类种群。我们通过以下方式评估了禽疟病媒（库蚊属蚊子）与一种本土草原鸟类——草原榛鸡（Tympanuchus cupido）之间的共同栖息地利用情况：（1）利用检测数据和栖息地变量，对堪萨斯州中北部烟山地区库蚊属物种的分布情况进行建模；（2）评估这些病媒在雌性草原榛鸡巢穴处的出现情况；（3）评估病媒与宿主之间的共同栖息地利用是否与草原榛鸡的疟疾感染状况相关。我们的结果表明，与其他可用但未被占据的草原栖息地相比，库蚊在巢穴位置的出现频率增加；然而，病媒与宿主之间的共同栖息地利用并没有导致在病媒出现频率高的栖息地中，草原榛鸡的疟原虫感染率增加。我们绘制了一幅预测地图，以说明库蚊出现情况与一种专性草原鸟类疟疾寄生虫感染状况之间的关联，该地图可用于指导管理决策，以限制病媒传播疾病的传播。
