Wisely Samantha M, Torhorst Carson W, Botero-Cañola Sebastian, Atsma Hannah, Burkett-Cadena Nathan D, Reeves Lawrence E
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, University of Florida, Vero Beach, FL 32962, USA.
Pathogens. 2025 Aug 8;14(8):792. doi: 10.3390/pathogens14080792.
Mosquito blood meals provide a biological sample of host blood which can then be used in downstream applications including host-pathogen detection. We conducted DNA barcoding to identify the host species of blood meals from 4557 blood engorged mosquitoes collected in south central Florida, USA. We identified 314 blood meals from invasive wild pigs, 219 wild turkey blood meals, and 1046 white-tailed deer blood meals. From a subset of these host blood meals, we used molecular assays to detect the nucleic acids of Torque teno sus virus 1 (TTSuV1) in wild pig blood meals, Lymphoproliferative virus (LPDV) in wild turkey blood meals, and bluetongue virus (BTV) in white-tailed deer blood meals. None of these wildlife pathogens are transmitted by mosquitoes, but viral nucleic acids circulate in the peripheral blood of host species during or post infection. Prevalence of TTSuV1 in wild pig blood meals was 34%; in wild turkey blood meals the prevalence of LPDV was 2.7%, and BTV prevalence in blood meals of white-tailed deer was 3.6%. These prevalence values were similar to estimates obtained from peripheral blood collected directly from these hosts in Florida. Our analysis suggests that mosquito blood meals are a valuable sampling tool for the detection of wildlife pathogens. We suggest that this type of exogenous xenosurveillance, using mosquitoes to infer information about the vertebrate host, is distinct from endogenous xenosurveillance in which the goal is to understand the role of the arthropod in vectoring a pathogen.
蚊虫吸食的血液提供了宿主血液的生物样本，随后可用于包括宿主病原体检测在内的下游应用。我们进行了DNA条形码分析，以确定从美国佛罗里达州中南部采集的4557只饱血蚊虫所吸食血液的宿主物种。我们鉴定出314份来自入侵野猪的血液样本、219份野生火鸡的血液样本和1046份白尾鹿的血液样本。从这些宿主血液样本的一个子集中，我们使用分子检测方法在野猪血液样本中检测到了细小病毒1型（TTSuV1）的核酸，在野生火鸡血液样本中检测到了淋巴细胞增生性病毒（LPDV），在白尾鹿血液样本中检测到了蓝舌病毒（BTV）。这些野生动物病原体均不会通过蚊虫传播，但病毒核酸在宿主感染期间或感染后会在其外周血中循环。TTSuV1在野猪血液样本中的流行率为34%；LPDV在野生火鸡血液样本中的流行率为2.7%，BTV在白尾鹿血液样本中的流行率为3.6%。这些流行率值与从佛罗里达州直接采集的这些宿主外周血中获得的估计值相似。我们的分析表明，蚊虫吸食的血液是检测野生动物病原体的一种有价值的采样工具。我们认为，这种利用蚊虫推断脊椎动物宿主信息的外源异源监测类型，与旨在了解节肢动物在病原体传播中作用的内源异源监测不同。
