A5012613211- Viral Infections and Vectors
- Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology
- Vector-Borne Animal Diseases
- Zoonotic diseases and public health
- Mosquito-borne diseases and control
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Agriculture and Farm Safety
- Plant and animal studies
- Plant Pathogens and Resistance
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Vector-borne infectious diseases
- Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Botany and Plant Ecology Studies
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases
- Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Malaria Research and Control
- Yeasts and Rust Fungi Studies
- Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Forest Insect Ecology and Management
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
2015-2025
HR Wallingford
2021
University of North Texas
2020
Natural Environment Research Council
2008-2016
University of Liverpool
2002-2011
Oxford Research Group
2007-2009
University of Oxford
2008
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
2007
The Pirbright Institute
2003-2006
Abstract Aim Although global trade is implicated in biological invasions, the assumption that networks explain large‐scale distributions of non‐native species remains largely untested. We addressed this by analysing relationships between and plant pest invasion. Location Forty‐eight countries Europe Mediterranean. Time period Current. Major taxa studied Four hundred twenty‐two pests (173 invertebrates, 166 pathogens, 83 plants). Methods Ten types connectivity index were developed,...
Culicoides spp. biting midges transmit bluetongue virus (BTV), the aetiological agent of (BT), an economically important disease ruminants. In southern India, hyperendemic outbreaks BT exert high cost to subsistence farmers in region, impacting on sheep production. Effective monitoring methods coupled with accurate species identification can accelerate responses for minimising outbreaks. Here, we assessed utility sampling and DNA barcoding detection order provide informed basis future their...
Abstract In 2022, EFSA was mandated by the European Commission's Directorate‐General for Health and Food Safety (M‐2022‐00070) to provide technical assistance on list of Union quarantine pests qualifying as priority pests, specified in Article 6(2) Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 protective measures against plant pests. As part Task C, conducted comprehensive expert knowledge elicitations 46 candidate focusing lag period, rate expansion impact production (yield quality losses) environment. This...
Remotely-sensed environmental data from earth-orbiting satellites are increasingly used to model the distribution and abundance of both plant animal species, especially those economic or conservation importance. Time series MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on-board NASA's Terra Aqua offer potential capture thermal vegetation seasonality, through temporal Fourier analysis, more accurately than was previously possible using NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution...
Mosquito-borne diseases cause substantial mortality and morbidity worldwide. These impacts are widely predicted to increase as temperatures warm extreme precipitation events become more frequent, since mosquito biology disease ecology strongly linked environmental conditions. However, direct evidence linking change changes in mosquito-borne is rare, the ecological mechanisms that may underpin such poorly understood. Environmental drivers, temperature, can have non-linear, opposing on...
The invasion of multiple strains the midge-borne bluetongue virus into southern Europe since late 1990s provides a rare example clear impact climate change on vector-borne disease. However, subsequent dramatic continent-wide spread and burden this disease has depended largely altered biotic interactions with vector host communities in newly invaded areas. Transmission by Palearctic vectors facilitated establishment cooler wetter areas both northern Europe. This paper discusses important...
Geographical maps indicating the value of basic reproduction number, R₀, can be used to identify areas higher risk for an outbreak after introduction. We develop a methodology create R₀ vector-borne diseases, using bluetongue virus as case study. This method provides tool gauging extent environmental effects on disease emergence. The involves integrating vector-abundance data with statistical approaches predict abundance from satellite imagery and biologically mechanistic modelling that...
Summary Species distribution modelling ( SDM ) is widely used in ecology, and predictions of species distributions inform both policy ecological debates. Therefore, methods with high predictive accuracy those that enable biological interpretation are preferable. Gaussian processes GP s) a highly flexible approach to statistical have recently been proposed for . models fit smooth, but potentially complex response functions can account high‐dimensional interactions between predictors. We...
Abstract According to the Convention on Biological Diversity, by 2020 invasive alien species (IAS) should be identified and their impacts assessed, so that can prioritized for implementation of appropriate control strategies measures put in place manage invasion pathways. For one quarter IAS listed as “100 world's worst” environmental are linked diseases wildlife (undomesticated plants animals). Moreover, a significant source “pathogen pollution” defined human‐mediated introduction pathogen...
Abstract Background There is a strong policy impetus for the One Health cross-sectoral approach to address complex challenge of zoonotic diseases, particularly in low/lower middle income countries (LMICs). Yet implementation this LMIC contexts such as India has proven challenging, due partly relatively limited practical guidance and understanding on how foster sustain cross-sector collaborations. This study addresses gap by exploring facilitators barriers successful convergence between...
The 2006 bluetongue (BT) outbreak in northwestern Europe had devastating effects on cattle and sheep that intensively farmed area. role of wind disease spread, through its effect Culicoides dispersal, is still uncertain, remains unquantified. We examine here the relationship between farm-level infection dates speed direction within framework a novel model involving both mechanistic stochastic steps. consider as carrier host semio-chemicals, to which midges might respond by upwind flight,...
Abstract Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are the biological vectors of internationally important arboviruses livestock including bluetongue virus ( BTV ). Information on habitats used by for larval development is valuable establishing targeted vector control strategies and improving local scale models abundance. This study combines emergence trap collections adult identified using molecular markers physiochemical measurements to investigate sites Palaearctic in South East...
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a viral disease endemic in Eurasia. The virus mainly transmitted to humans via ticks and occasionally the consumption of unpasteurized milk products. European Centre for Disease Prevention Control reported an increase TBE incidence over past years Europe as well emergence new areas. To better understand this phenomenon, we investigated drivers through expert knowledge elicitation. We listed 59 possible grouped eight domains elicited forty experts to: (i)...
Abstract. Surveillance data from 268 sites in Sicily are used to develop climatic models for prediction of the distribution main European bluetongue virus (BTV) vector Culicoides imicola Kieffer (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) and potential novel vectors, pulicaris Linnaeus, obsoletus group Meigen newsteadi Austen. The containing ‘best’ predictors each species, were selected combinations 40 temporally Fourier‐processed remotely sensed variables altitude at a 1 km spatial resolution using...
This paper tests the hypothesis that Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) species can be propagated by wind over long distances. Movement patterns of midges were inferred indirectly from spread bluetongue outbreaks between farms (using outbreak data 1999-2001 for Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey) then matched to concurrent patterns. The general methodology was determine trajectories each site based on horizontal vertical components European ReAnalysis-40 (ERA-40) dataset centre medium-range...
The risk posed to the United Kingdom by West Nile virus (WNV) has previously been considered low, due absence or scarcity of main Culex sp. bridge vectors. mosquito modestus is widespread in southern Europe, where it acts as principle vector WNV. This species was not thought be present Kingdom.Mosquito larval surveys carried out 2010 identified substantial populations Cx. at two sites marshland southeast England. Host-seeking-adult traps placed a third site indicate that relative seasonal...
Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) vector a wide variety of internationally important arboviral pathogens livestock and represent widespread nuisance. This study investigated the influence landscape, host remotely‐sensed climate factors on local abundance livestock‐associated species in Scotland, within hierarchical generalized linear model framework. The obsoletus group pulicaris accounted for 56% 41%, respectively, adult females trapped. impunctatus Goetghebuer C. s.s....
Background: Debates over whether climate change could lead to the amplification of Lyme disease (LD) risk in future have received much attention. Although recent large-scale mapping studies project an overall increase as warms, such conclusions are based on climate-driven models which other drivers change, land-use/cover and host population distribution, less considered. Objectives: The main objectives were likely ecological patterns LD Europe under different assumptions about socioeconomic...