Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, New York City, New York, United States of America.
Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 25;19(10):e0305510. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305510. eCollection 2024.
How landscape composition and configuration impact the distribution of multi-vector and multi-host mosquito vector-borne disease systems, such as West Nile virus (WNV), remains challenging because of complex habitat and resource requirements by hosts and vectors that affect transmission opportunities. We examined correlations between landscape composition and configuration and 2018 WNV sentinel chicken seroconversion in Florida, USA across the state and within five National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) bioclimatic regions to understand strength and variation of landscape effects during an elevated transmission year. Although few landscape studies have examined WNV in Florida, we expected higher percentages of residential or medium-developed landscapes and more fragmented landscapes would be positively correlated with WNV seroconversion owing to the main mosquito vector habitats and avian host distributions. However, we expected to find variation in the importance of forest, wetland, and agriculture landscapes across bioclimatic regions in the state. WNV seroconversion rates were calculated using Florida 2018 Department of Health WNV sentinel chicken seroconversion data from 187 flocks maintained by mosquito control programs. Percent land cover and edge density metrics were calculated for multiple land cover classes and within multiple buffer distances from chicken coops using 2019 National Land Cover Data. We used binomial generalized linear mixed effects models to calculate the importance of landscape metrics to WNV seroconversion. We found no statewide predictors of seroconversion, but as expected, the importance of landscape varied across regions. In the north-central part of the state, we found higher seroconversion in less populated suburban areas while higher seroconversion in south-central Florida was correlated with fragmented forested areas within 0.5 km of coops and intact woody wetland areas within 2 km of coops. This work corroborates previous findings that consistent landscape predictors of WNV are difficult to identify across broader geographic areas and sets the stage for additional work that incorporates climate and landscapes interactions for a greater understanding of WNV ecology in this geographic region.
景观组成和结构如何影响多向量和多宿主蚊媒疾病系统（如西尼罗河病毒 [WNV]）的分布仍然具有挑战性，因为宿主和媒介的复杂栖息地和资源需求会影响传播机会。我们在美国佛罗里达州检查了景观组成和结构与 2018 年 WNV 哨鸡血清转化率之间的相关性，范围包括全州和五个美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）生物气候区，以了解在传播率较高的年份中景观效应的强弱和变化。尽管很少有景观研究检查过佛罗里达州的 WNV，但由于主要的蚊子媒介栖息地和鸟类宿主分布，我们预计较高比例的住宅或中等发达的景观和更碎片化的景观将与 WNV 血清转化率呈正相关。然而，我们预计在全州的生物气候区中，森林、湿地和农业景观的重要性会有所不同。WNV 血清转化率是使用佛罗里达州 2018 年卫生署 WNV 哨鸡血清转化率数据计算得出的，这些数据来自由蚊虫控制计划维护的 187 个鸡群。使用 2019 年国家土地覆盖数据，我们为多个土地覆盖类别和鸡舍周围的多个缓冲区距离计算了百分比土地覆盖和边缘密度指标。我们使用二项式广义线性混合效应模型来计算景观指标对 WNV 血清转化率的重要性。我们没有发现全州范围内与血清转化率相关的预测因子，但正如预期的那样，景观的重要性在各个地区有所不同。在该州的中北部，我们发现人口较少的郊区的血清转化率较高，而在佛罗里达州中南部，鸡舍 0.5 公里范围内森林破碎化地区和 2 公里范围内的完整木质湿地地区的血清转化率较高。这项工作证实了先前的发现，即在更广泛的地理区域内很难确定一致的 WNV 景观预测因子，并为进一步的工作奠定了基础，这些工作将纳入气候和景观的相互作用，以更好地了解该地理区域的 WNV 生态。
