West Nile virus eco-epidemiology and climate change

Abstract

West Nile virus (WNV) is an arbovirus with a wide geographical distribution. It is maintained in an enzootic bird-mosquito cycle and exhibits regular zoonotic transmission to humans, to whom it can cause West Nile fever and neuroinvasive disease. Over the last decades, WNV has emerged as a serious health threat with profound impacts on animal and human health. It is broadly accepted that climate change impacts the transmission of WNV through multiple pathways via its impacts on vectors, the pathogen, hosts, and the environment. Although some clarity has been established, the outcomes of these climate-driven processes are yet to be better understood before they can fully benefit tailored prevention and control measures. This review focuses on the eco-epidemiology of WNV and how it is impacted by climate change through an integrative lens. We discuss the role of eco-epidemiological modeling in knowledge generation and highlight the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary One Health approach for improved surveillance, data collection, modeling, and translation of outcomes into actionable policy and control.

Genomic epidemiology of West Nile virus in Europe

“…West Nile virus was again detected in a grey heron ( Ardea cinerea ) in 2022 in The Netherlands [ 84 ], but no human cases have been reported since 2020. Global warming has been implicated as one of the possible drivers of the northward spread of West Nile virus in Europe, with higher spring and summer temperatures, winter warming, and lower water availability creating suitable conditions for transmission cycles to establish [ 10 , [85] , [86] , [87] , [88] , [89] , [90] ]. Expanded genomic surveillance will be critical to understand how West Nile virus will continue to expand its geographic distribution in Europe, and whether future outbreaks are caused by locally overwintering viruses or new introductions from other regions.…”

Transboundary determinants of avian zoonotic infectious diseases: challenges for strengthening research capacity and connecting surveillance networks

“…Numerus studies in North America, underscore the role of passerines as amplifying hosts for WNV, contributing to its spread in North America (Kilpatrick et al, 2006;Levine et al, 2017). West Nile Virus and its mosquito vectors, are intricately linked to climate change, increasing the complexity of the disease (Paull et al, 2017;Gorris et al, 2023;Heidecke et al, 2023).…”

The City as an Evolutionary Hothouse—The Search for Rapid Evolution in Urban Settings

“…. potentially accelerating the adaptation of the pathogen to novel conditions as well as benefiting the emergence of high-fitness strains" [143]. Moreover, the spread of zoonotic pathogens can also be promoted by changing the gut microbiomes of host species, which might influence pathogen susceptibility [144].…”