<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>Caroline R. Van Hemert</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Colleen M. Handel</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Matthew M. Smith</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2019</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span id="_mce_caret" data-mce-bogus="1" data-mce-type="format-caret"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Mosquito vectors play a crucial role in the distribution of avian&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;parasites worldwide. At northern latitudes, where climate warming is most pronounced, there are questions about possible changes in the abundance and distribution of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;parasites, their vectors, and their impacts to avian hosts. To better understand the transmission of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;among local birds and to gather baseline data on potential vectors, we sampled a total of 3,909 mosquitoes from three locations in south‐central Alaska during the summer of 2016. We screened mosquitoes for the presence of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;parasites using molecular techniques and estimated&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;infection rates per 1,000 mosquitoes using maximum likelihood methods. We found low estimated infection rates across all mosquitoes (1.28 per 1,000), with significantly higher rates in&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Culiseta&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;mosquitoes (7.91 per 1,000) than in&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Aedes&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;mosquitoes (0.57 per 1,000). We detected&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;in a single head/thorax sample of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Culiseta&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;, indicating potential for transmission of these parasites by mosquitoes of this genus.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;parasite DNA isolated from mosquitoes showed a 100% identity match to the BT7&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;lineage that has been detected in numerous avian species worldwide. Additionally, microscopic analysis of blood smears collected from black‐capped chickadees (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Poecile atricapillus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;) at the same locations revealed infection by parasites preliminarily identified as&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium circumflexum&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;. Results from our study provide the first information on&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;infection rates in Alaskan mosquitoes and evidence that&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Culiseta&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;species may play a role in the transmission and maintenance of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plasmodium&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;parasites in this region.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br data-mce-bogus="1"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1111/jvec.12330</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Wiley</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Evidence of Culiseta mosquitoes as vectors for Plasmodium parasites in Alaska</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>