West Nile virus: Eco-epidemiology of disease emergence in urban areas II

西尼罗河病毒每年都会在美国各地的城市环境中重新出现，以一种可预测的周期加速蚊鸟传播，称为放大。当病毒在鸟类和蚊子体内充分扩增时，它就会扩散到人类身上。该项目将重点关注芝加哥郊区病毒扩增和人类疾病的持续热点。该项目将确定精细生态过程如何激发局部传播焦点，以及这些焦点最终如何合并成更大的放大模式。通过将鸟类和蚊子的实地研究与病毒的分子研究和精细景观特征的地理分析相结合，该研究将阐明西尼罗病毒在城市环境中传播、扩增和进化的基本生态驱动因素。西尼罗河病毒是人类和野生动物反复发病的原因。通过确定城市环境中的生态因素如何促进病毒传播，本研究将提供有助于改善人类公共健康和野生动物保护的信息。此外，新的和重新出现的蚊媒疾病威胁着整个美国和世界的城市人口。从这项研究中获得的关于西尼罗河病毒的信息将有助于预测和预防美国和其他地方城市环境中类似疾病的出现。

West Nile virus re-emerges annually in urban settings across the United States in a predictable cycle of accelerating mosquito-bird transmission known as amplification. When the virus amplifies sufficiently in birds and mosquitoes, it spills over into humans. This project will focus on a persistent hot spot of viral amplification and human disease in suburban Chicago. The project will determine how fine-scale ecological processes spark local transmission foci, and how these foci ultimately coalesce into larger patterns of amplification. By combining field studies of birds and mosquitoes with molecular studies of the virus and geographic analyses of fine-scale landscape characteristics, the study will elucidate the fundamental ecological drivers of West Nile virus transmission, amplification, and evolution in urban settings. West Nile virus is responsible for recurring illness in humans and wildlife. By determining how ecological factors in the urban environment facilitate viral transmission, this study will provide information that will improve both human public health and wildlife conservation. Moreover, new and re-emerging mosquito-borne diseases threaten urban populations throughout the USA and the world. Information on West Nile virus from this study will help predict and prevent the emergence of similar diseases in urban environments across the USA and elsewhere.