Vectors on heat islands: Assessing urbanisation and microclimatic effects on mosquito-borne disease risks
Applications are now CLOSED
Overview
Global vector-borne disease risks are being exacerbated by environmental changes. Burgeoning land use alteration aggravates climate warming through heat islands and microclimates which promote mosquito proliferation. A multidisciplinary team supports this project analysing how land use influences mosquito-borne disease risk, considering vector species composition, pathogens, bloodmeal preferences, and socio-political perceptions.
"Mosquito-borne diseases increasingly threaten human and wildlife health. A nexus of globalising trade and transport, environmental changes, and burgeoning human populations are causing mosquito proliferations, biological invasions, and altering zoonotic disease risk.
Recently, there has been a considerable expansion of mosquito-borne diseases into temperate areas, with an increasing risk to the British and Irish Isles (Medlock et al., 2018). Several pathogen vectors are already present in the UK and Ireland, including West Nile and Usutu virus vectors Culex pipiens and Cx. torrentium, as well as the malaria-causing plasmodium parasite vector Anopheles maculipennis, with mosquito-borne pathogens recently identified in UK wildlife (Folly et al., 2020). While humans are not currently involved in disease transmission cycles with these vectors in the UK, there is a high potential for this to occur with climate and land use changes, as well as biological invasions of non-native mosquitoes and pathogens (Cuthbert et al., 2023). In particular, urban areas are rapidly expanding and could act as ‘heat islands’ which bolster mosquito numbers, human blood feeding tendencies, and invasion success.
Very little is known about the ecology, pathogen transmission potential, and perceptions of mosquitoes under land use gradients associated with urbanisation. This could compromise national UK/Ireland and global surveillance efforts. This project brings together a multidisciplinary group of scientists and stakeholders comprising ecologists, virologists, parasitologists, and social scientists to understand the risks and opportunities around mosquito-borne disease across land use gradients under a OneHealth framework. We will focus sampling in Northern Ireland because there is a paucity of understanding around mosquito-borne disease risk compared to other parts of the UK/Ireland, and due to its recent high risk placement at the only UK-EU land border. However, the results will be relevant globally. The project will address the following aims:
1) Assess urbanisation effects on diversity and community composition of mosquitoes across seasons, while preserving samples for subsequent pathogen and host screening;
2) Screen for zoonotic pathogen presence in sampled mosquitoes along urban land use gradients by (RT)qPCR, focusing on the flaviviruses, and keeping DAERA, the Public Health Agency and other relevant authorities informed at all stages to ensure that sampling, protocols and diagnostic tests are up to standard;
3) Analyse DNA in blood-fed mosquitoes to assess their hosts, infer potential human risk, and determine whether inter/intraspecific feeding preferences shift with land use;
4) Harness temperature data from UK cities to parameterise degree day and extrinsic incubation period models for widespread vectors compared to interpolated gridded means, focusing on Usutu and West Nile virus as well as dirofilaria transmission likelihoods;
5) Understand attitudes to policy and decision making around vector-borne disease among managers and the public, with descriptive qualitative interviews followed by wider population surveys. Project outputs will be communicated to promote changes in behaviour and policy.
The student will be well trained, with experience in ecological surveys, epidemiology, molecular tools, statistical modelling, and social science approaches. These skillsets will build much-needed research capacity and preparedness around mosquito-borne disease and environmental change.
Cuthbert, R.N., Darriet, F., Chabrerie, O., et al. 2023. Invasive hematophagous arthropods and associated diseases in a changing world. Parasit Vectors, 16, 291.
Folly, A.J., Lawson, B., Lean, F.Z., et al. 2020. Detection of Usutu virus infection in wild birds in the United Kingdom, 2020. Euro Surveill, 25, 2001732.
Medlock, J.M., Hansford, K.M., Vaux, A.G., et al. 2018. Assessment of the public health threats posed by vector-borne dise"
"Applicants who are interested in applying for this fully funded studentship must submit their application via the online application survey by Midnight on 25th March 2024; https://cardiff.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/onezoo-202425
More information can be found at https://onezoo.uk/
This studentship us part of the OneZoo Centre for Doctoral Training (https://onezoo.uk/students/prospective-students/)
For any questions regarding the student application and recruitment process, please contact us at OneZoo@cardiff.ac.uk."
Funding Information
Project Summary
Dr Ross Cuthbert
Full-time: 3.5 Years