Below is the general meeting application for 2019. This application is for those that did not apply for the training and wish to only attend the general meeting. The application is due on February 15th, 2019.
Descriptions for the working groups that will be attending this year’s meeting can be found below:
Vector Dynamics Data Round Table: VectorBiTE has created an online repository for vector population abundance data to allow researchers to consolidate data sets on vector population dynamics through time and space. We will be bringing together organizations either working towards similar goals (examples: Vectorbase, VecNet) and key data holders (Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases and others) to identify synergies and also to discuss challenges of data availability and access.
Vector Traits: We will be bringing together experts in trait-based approaches to ecology as well as key data holders of vector traits to help refine and develop the VecTraits database.
SPiT: Our question: How do Species Interactions affect variation in vector traits to shape Transmission of focal infections at multiple scales? We are currently searching the literature for predation influence on vector traits (survival, fecundity, development rate, host preference & biting rate (behavior), dispersal, phenology (seasonal / daily), competence, transmission mode, and immunology/resistance / susceptibility). We plan to use the model and our literature search to answer the following questions: What evidence is there that vector populations of any stage are regulated by predators? What are the direct and indirect effects of predators on vector traits and transmission? What life history and vector traits determine whether vector population regulation by predators exists? Do these predator prey interactions lead to selection on the vector trait?
Climate Impacts on Ticks: Despite the strong sensitivity of ectotherm disease vectors to environmental conditions, scant evidence exists for climate change as a driver of vector-borne disease emergence. In thecase of tick-borne disease, ongoing changes in land use, habitat, and host movement often confound and obscure direct effects of changing climatic conditions. An understanding of the mechanisms through which climate change may directly impact tick-borne disease is necessary to predict and mitigate tick-borne disease incidence under future climate scenarios. To this end, this proposed working group seeks to address the question: What are the ongoing and predicted impacts of climate change on tick-borne disease?
Confection: Co-infections are ubiquitous in nature, yet studies of infection dynamics of vector-borne diseases typically focus on single pathogens interacting with a few key hosts. Co-infection can alter pathogen dynamics by increasing or inhibiting transmission and virulence. While co-infection dynamics can be mediated by within-host processes, vector traits that can influence the occurrence and prevalence of co-infections have been often overlooked. For example, vector behavior is a key driver of vector-borne disease (VBD) dynamics, and variation in behavioral traits, such as host preference, can dramatically alter co-infection rates.
Spatial and Temporal Patterns: A recent meta-analysis found a significantly positive relationship between species abundance and environmental suitability [8]. More recent literature negates this finding; it is unclear whether the center of the niche (i.e. the most suitable area), correlates with abundance for organisms. In the Weber et al. 2016 paper, invertebrates had a wide confidence interval on the abundance-suitability (AS) correlation. This indicates a high level of uncertainty for this relationship. By narrowing our focus to a small number of species for which we have high-quality data, we can leverage the power of
Rate Summation: Using a combination of empirical and modeling approaches, we want to assess the power of rate summation to predict how disease transmission will vary in a fluctuating environment (using temperature as an example) across a diversity of organisms, including insect vectors. Rate summation may vary in its capacity to predict trait performance in fluctuating environments across diverse organisms due to different time-dependent temperature effects introduced by organismal responses to chronic vs. acute exposure to temperature, and whether chronic exposure induces thermal acclimation vs. thermal stress responses. Our objective is to use existing data from a variety of ectothermic systems to develop new theory that modifies rate summation for these time-dependent lags and that can be easily applied across a diversity of vector-borne disease systems to increase the predictive power of current modeling approaches.