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Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), including those vectored by mosquitoes, have recently been cited as potential emerging health threats to marine mammals. Despite the fully aquatic habits of cetaceans, immunologic exposure to arboviruses including West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis...

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Autores principales: Reeves, Lawrence E., Gillett-Kaufman, Jennifer L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395156/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32737372
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69942-8
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author Reeves, Lawrence E.
Gillett-Kaufman, Jennifer L.
author_facet Reeves, Lawrence E.
Gillett-Kaufman, Jennifer L.
author_sort Reeves, Lawrence E.
collection PubMed
description Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), including those vectored by mosquitoes, have recently been cited as potential emerging health threats to marine mammals. Despite the fully aquatic habits of cetaceans, immunologic exposure to arboviruses including West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis virus has been detected in wild Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, and captive orcas have been killed by West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis virus. Currently, there is no evidence of direct interactions between mosquitoes and marine mammals in nature, and it remains unknown how wild cetaceans are exposed to mosquito-vectored pathogens. Here, we report the first evidence of direct interactions between an aquatic mammal, the West Indian manatee, a federally threatened species, and mosquitoes in nature. Observations of manatees in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA, indicate that mosquitoes of three genera, Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex are able to locate and land on surface-active manatees, and at minimum, penetrate and probe manatee epidermis with their mouthparts. Whether mosquitoes can successfully take a blood meal is not known; however, an arbovirus-infected mosquito can inoculate extravascular host tissues with virus-infected saliva during probing. These observations suggest that it is possible for marine mammals to be exposed to mosquito-vectored pathogens through direct interactions with mosquitoes.
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spelling pubmed-73951562020-08-04 Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA Reeves, Lawrence E. Gillett-Kaufman, Jennifer L. Sci Rep Article Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), including those vectored by mosquitoes, have recently been cited as potential emerging health threats to marine mammals. Despite the fully aquatic habits of cetaceans, immunologic exposure to arboviruses including West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis virus has been detected in wild Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, and captive orcas have been killed by West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis virus. Currently, there is no evidence of direct interactions between mosquitoes and marine mammals in nature, and it remains unknown how wild cetaceans are exposed to mosquito-vectored pathogens. Here, we report the first evidence of direct interactions between an aquatic mammal, the West Indian manatee, a federally threatened species, and mosquitoes in nature. Observations of manatees in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA, indicate that mosquitoes of three genera, Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex are able to locate and land on surface-active manatees, and at minimum, penetrate and probe manatee epidermis with their mouthparts. Whether mosquitoes can successfully take a blood meal is not known; however, an arbovirus-infected mosquito can inoculate extravascular host tissues with virus-infected saliva during probing. These observations suggest that it is possible for marine mammals to be exposed to mosquito-vectored pathogens through direct interactions with mosquitoes. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC7395156/ /pubmed/32737372 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69942-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Reeves, Lawrence E.
Gillett-Kaufman, Jennifer L.
Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
title Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
title_full Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
title_fullStr Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
title_full_unstemmed Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
title_short Interactions between the imperiled West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
title_sort interactions between the imperiled west indian manatee, trichechus manatus, and mosquitoes (diptera: culicidae) in everglades national park, florida, usa
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395156/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32737372
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69942-8
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