Host Feeding Preference by Aedes aegypti at Two Nonincorporated Urban Communities along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Abstract

Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) is a medically important mosquito species and the primary vector of dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses. Although Ae. aegypti feeds preferentially on humans, feeding on non-human vertebrates has been observed in South Texas and northern Mexico. Geographical northern expansion and feeding behavior of this medically important mosquito into the Chihuahua Desert are not well understood. The objective of this study was to identify vertebrate hosts that are sources of blood meals for adult Ae. aegypti captured from 2016-2018 in gravid traps in two nonincorporated urban communities of Sparks in El Paso County, Texas and Anapra at Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico along the U.S.-Mexico border. In total, 44 fully engorged female Ae. aegypti (17 at Sparks and 27 at Anapra) were captured during this binational study. Of the 44, 17 were successfully sequenced to determine if the host was human Homo sapiens (Linnaeus), dog Canis lupus familiaris (Linnaeus), cat Felis catus (Linnaeus), or chicken Gallus domesticus (Linnaeus). At Sparks, four Ae. aegypti fed on dogs, one fed on a human, and one fed on a chicken. At Anapra, eight fed on humans, two fed on dogs, and one fed on a cat. This provides a preliminary understanding of host feeding by Ae. aegypti in the temperate/arid climatic region of the northern Chihuahua Desert. Further studies are needed to better understand feeding preference of Ae. aegypti by capturing and analyzing more fully engorged females from the region.