Assessing mosquito diversity and pathogen transmission: Lessons and insights from the Culicoides-ehd system

Multi-year, national data on the Culicoides-vectored virus causing epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) in white-tailed deer provides a rare opportunity to study the role of vector diversity on pathogen transmission and maintenance. I will highlight how environmental variation across the landscape influences the community structure of Culicoides and how this in turn translates to hotspots for disease transmission. Additionally, I will present evidence that the reason species-rich Culicoides regions are transmission hotspots is less to do with vector abundance and the probabilistic chance such communities contain species of high vectorial capacity, and more to do with the fact that many species-rich communities contain Culicoides species with distinct phenologies, extending the temporal window of transmission within a year. I will integrate these findings into the broader picture of pathogen transmission and maintenance in the US and present preliminary data and evidence that much of these phenomena are likely to carry over into mosquito-pathogen systems.