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Poster Session

Disease/Vector Studies

Poster Session

P-18 - Evaluation of Regional Surveillance of West Nile Virus and St. Louis Encephalitis Virus in the Panhandle of Texas

Wednesday, March 5, 2025
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM AST
Location: Hall A
Abstract: The arthropod-borne viruses West Nile Virus (WNV) and St. Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV) are vectored by Culex mosquitoes. The Texas panhandle (26 counties) has one of the highest WNV neuro-incidence rates in the country. Yet, there is a general lack of data in the region regarding the dynamics of the virus in its enzootic cycle. We implemented two WNV surveillance projects to address this limitation: fine-scale analyses of WNV and SLEV in Lubbock County and regional scale analyses throughout the panhandle. In this abstract, we describe our surveillance projects and discuss preliminary data from summer 2024 collections. For our study, we used BG sentinel traps and CDC light traps to collect Culex mosquitoes in a multitude of habitats. For our regional studies, we worked in partnership with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), which collected mosquitoes throughout the panhandle using the same trap types. Mosquitoes from both studies were identified using a dichotomous key, and then Culex tarsalis and Culex quinquefasciatus females were tested for viruses using a combination of commercial RNA extraction kits and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). To date, in Lubbock County 790 Cx. tarsalis pools were tested as 201 super-pools, of which 51 tested positive for WNV, and 1 tested positive for both WNV and SLEV. For Cx. quinquefasciatus, 269 pools were put into 54 super pools, 18 of which tested positive for WNV. For the state samples: from 16 other panhandle counties, we tested a total of 35 pools of Cx. tarsalis and Cx. quinquefasciatus, of which 3 were positive for WNV and reported to the state. Overall, we have found more positive pools than expected given the previous literature on the Texas panhandle. This will help to improve current control strategies to limit virus transmission and allow for more regional reports.