| repeated west nile virus epidemic transmission in kern county, california, 2004-2007. | west nile virus (wnv) has remained epidemic in kern county, ca, since its introduction in 2004 through 2007 when the human case annual incidence increased from 6-8 to 17 per 100,000, respectively. the 2007 increase in human infection was associated with contradicting surveillance indicators, including severe drought, warm spring but cool summer temperature anomalies, decreased rural and urban mosquito abundance but increased early season infection in urban culex quinquefasciatus say, moderate av ... | 2009 | 19198528 |
| role of corvids in epidemiology of west nile virus in southern california. | the invasion of different southern california landscapes by west nile virus (wnv) and its subsequent amplification to epidemic levels during 2004 enabled us to study the impact of differing corvid populations in three biomes: the hot colorado desert with few corvids (coachella valley), the southern san joaquin valley (kern county) with large western scrub-jay but small american crow populations, and the cool maritime coast (los angeles) with a large clustered american crow population. similar su ... | 2006 | 16619622 |
| experimental infection of california birds with western equine encephalomyelitis and st. louis encephalitis viruses. | a total of 27 bird species from the san joaquin and coachella valleys of california were inoculated subcutaneously with sympatric strains of western equine encephalomyelitis (wee) and st. louis encephalitis (sle) viruses. overall, 133 of 164 birds inoculated with wee virus developed a viremia detected by plaque assay; significantly greater than 72 of 163 birds inoculated with sle virus. host competence was calculated as the average number of days that each avian species had a viremia > or = 2 lo ... | 2003 | 14765678 |
| california scrub-jays reduce visual cues available to potential pilferers by matching food colour to caching substrate. | some animals hide food to consume later; however, these caches are susceptible to theft by conspecifics and heterospecifics. caching animals can use protective strategies to minimize sensory cues available to potential pilferers, such as caching in shaded areas and in quiet substrate. background matching (where object patterning matches the visual background) is commonly seen in prey animals to reduce conspicuousness, and caching animals may also use this tactic to hide caches, for example, by h ... | 2017 | 28724689 |
| abundance and bloodfeeding patterns of mosquitoes (diptera: culicidae) in an oak woodland on the eastern slope of the northern coast range of california. | the abundance and bloodfeeding patterns of mosquitoes was studied from 2008 to 2010 at an 18 ha. oak woodland in lake county, ca. host-seeking females were collected weekly from sunset to sunrise by paired dry-ice-baited cdc style traps, whereas resting females were aspirated from paired walk-in red boxes. sequences of the coi gene amplified from bloodmeals from engorged resting females were used to identify the bloodmeal hosts. aedes sierrensis (ludlow) and aedes increpitus dyar complex mosquit ... | 2017 | 28874011 |
| spatial variation in host feeding patterns of culex tarsalis and the culex pipiens complex (diptera: culicidae) in california. | west nile virus (family flaviviridae, genus flavivirus, wnv) is now endemic in california across a variety of ecological regions that support a wide diversity of potential avian and mammalian host species. because different avian hosts have varying competence for wnv, determining the blood-feeding patterns of culex (diptera: culicidae) vectors is a key component in understanding the maintenance and amplification of the virus as well as tangential transmission to humans and horses. we investigate ... | 0 | 22897051 |
| surveys for antibodies against mosquitoborne encephalitis viruses in california birds, 1996-2013. | from 1996 through 2013, 54,546 individual birds comprising 152 species and 7 orders were banded, bled, and released at four study areas within california, from which 28,388 additional serum samples were collected at one or more recapture encounters. of these, 142, 99, and 1929 birds from 41 species were positive for neutralizing antibodies against western equine encephalomyelitis virus (weev), st. louis encephalitis virus (slev), or west nile virus (wnv) at initial capture or recapture, respecti ... | 2016 | 26974395 |
| west nile virus-related trends in avian mortality in california, usa, 2003-12. | west nile virus (wnv) is an arbovirus transmitted enzootically by culex mosquitoes among avian hosts. since 2000, the california dead bird surveillance program (dbsp) has tracked avian mortality reported by the public on a telephone hotline and website and measured the prevalence of wnv infection in dead birds. we summarize herein wnv prevalence in dead birds tested and variation of wnv transmission over time and space with the use of dbsp data from 2003 to 2012. prevalence among dead birds was ... | 2015 | 25919466 |