INVESTIGADORES
GLEISER Raquel Miranda
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Tracking Seasonal Movements of Mosquito Populations in St. Tammany, Orleans, and Jefferson Parishes, Louisiana.
Autor/es:
CAMPANELLA R.; WESSON D.M.; CAILLOUET K.; GLEISER, R. M.
Lugar:
Lafayette, Louisiana. EEUU
Reunión:
Workshop; 19th Annual Louisiana Remote Sensing and GIS Workshop; 2003
Resumen:
Arboviruses such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile virus (WNv) have recently exhibited new and/or expanded transmission in Louisiana, making mosquito research and control a renewed statewide priority. Management efforts may be improved through better understanding of the habitat preferences of key species, such as the ornithophagic Culiseta melanura, which has been implicated as the likely maintenance vector in EEE cycles and may play a similar role in the WNv cycle. But many species’ habitat preferences are better known for the northeastern United States than for the Gulf Coast. This study uses GIS and remote sensing to investigate the spatial and temporal movements of a wide range of Louisiana mosquito species through a multiyear field observation in a geographically representative study area in St, Tammany Parish, and throughout Orleans and Jefferson parishes in southeastern Louisiana. Traps, weather-data loggers, and rain gauges were set up at 15 systematically located sites covering 26 rural acres near Mandeville. Mosquitoes were collected weekly at the traps for a 15-month period, then analyzed for species, gender, bloodmeal, and arbovirus infection in an entomological laboratory at Tulane University. Geographical parameters (forest parameters, land cover, LIDAR-measured topography, distance to water, and other characteristics) were then processed and correlated to the number of captures per species at each site, through a customized program built in ARC/INFO Geographic Information Systems. A similar study in the greater New Orleans area used 30 traps dispersed throughout a variety of urban and suburban environments, and was analyzed similarly. Results show monthly patterns of correlation levels between number of captures and geographical characteristics, indicating species’ habitat preferences and spatial / temporal movements.  With further refinement, this information may be used to allocate mosquito control efforts to the right place and time to control those species most likely to subject human and animal populations to arbovirus exposure.