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17 October 2015 How do Nutritional Stress and La Crosse Virus Infection Interact? Tests for Effects on Willingness to Blood Feed and Fecundity in Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)
Katie M. Westby, Ephantus J. Muturi, Steven A. Juliano
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Abstract

Evolutionary theory predicts that vector-borne pathogens should have low virulence for their vector because of selection against pathogens that harm the vector sufficiently to reduce transmission. Environmental factors such as nutritional stress can alter vector–pathogen associations by making the vectors more susceptible to pathogens (condition-dependent competence) and vulnerable to the harm caused by pathogen replication (condition-dependent virulence). We tested the hypotheses of condition-dependent competence and conditiondependent virulence by examining the interactive effects of short-term sugar deprivation and exposure to La Crosse virus (LACV) in female Aedes albopictus (Skuse). We predicted that infection status interacts with sugar deprivation to alter willingness to blood feed and fecundity in the second gonotrophic cycle (conditiondependent virulence). Sugar deprivation had no effect on body infection or disseminated infection rates. Infection status, sugar treatment, and their interaction had no effect on fecundity. Mosquitoes that had intermittent access to sugar were significantly more willing to take a second bloodmeal compared with those that had continuous access to sugar. Infection status and the interaction with sugar treatment had no effect on bloodfeeding behavior. Thus, we found no evidence of short-term sugar deprivation leading to condition-dependent competence for, or condition-dependent virulence of, LACV in Ae. albopictus.

© The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
Katie M. Westby, Ephantus J. Muturi, and Steven A. Juliano "How do Nutritional Stress and La Crosse Virus Infection Interact? Tests for Effects on Willingness to Blood Feed and Fecundity in Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)," Journal of Medical Entomology 53(1), 166-171, (17 October 2015). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjv146
Received: 6 March 2015; Accepted: 9 September 2015; Published: 17 October 2015
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KEYWORDS
Aedes albopictus
blood feeding
fecundity
La Crosse virus
sugar
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