The Relationship Between Pathogen Vector Prevalence and Pathogen Presence

The figure above displays the trends in overall disease vector. Especially worthy of note are the Great Lakes, Ozarks Complex, and Southeast domains, as while these domains show high vector counts, these represent relatively low vector proportions. The greatest number of observed specimens was reported in the Southeast domain.

The above figure demonstrates the domains in the US with the highest reported pathogen positive PCR tests. Due to mosquito-borne pathogens being relatively rare in the US, numbers are overall quite low. The data indicates a possible connection between positive PCR test appearance and high vector counts, with an apparent “threshold” of vector counts before positive PCR tests begin appearing, though the Taiga domain stands as an exception. Proportion seems to be a poor indicator of pathogen presence. The Great Lakes domain, with a proprtion of only 10% of specimens identified as disease vectors, showed the highest number of PCR tests.

PCR tests were performed for the following:
Alphavirus sp., Orthobunyavirus sp., Flavivirus sp., West Nile virus, Cowbone Ridge virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, Dengue virus, Zika virus, Yellow fever virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Una virus, Mayaro virus, Ross River virus, Highlands J virus, Western equine encephalitis virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, Sindbis virus, Chikungunya virus, La Crosse virus, Main Drain virus, Oropouche virus, California encephalitis virus