We build a mathematical model to test whether a RTV can facilitate disease management in instances where reversion is likely to introduce the vector into the population or when the vector organism is already established in the host population, and the vector and vaccine share perfect cross-immunity.
Disease that is transmitted between hosts by a vector organism such as a mosquito or tick (e.g., malaria, dengue fever, and leishmaniasis).
Consequently, no chemicals are available that target only the virus without impacting host cells or vector organisms.
In particular, novel developments include the design of vectors that are not just simple carbon copies of wild-type viruses carrying a heterologous coding sequence, but that, instead, have been 'deconstructed' by delegating some rate-limiting functions to other vector organisms (Agrobacterium) or the plant host, thus allowing for a more efficient, versatile, controlled, and safe process.
Vector organisms are implicated in the transmission of close to a third of all infectious diseases.
A rigorous understanding of the transmission dynamics of pathogens from infected wildlife hosts to vector organisms is critical to explorations of the ecology of vector-borne diseases.
Local environmental conditions are important determinants of vector-borne disease distribution through their action on the host species, intermediate vertebrate hosts (where applicable), and vector organisms, especially mosquitoes.
However, such laboratory-based estimates may fail to capture the true distribution of host reservoir competencies because of unknown consequences of host selection behavior by vector organisms or the unmeasured contributions of cryptic reservoir hosts (11 ).
Although rarely tested, several cases of cryptic fine scale population structure in vector organisms have now been demonstrated (e.g. (Ravel et al. 2002; McCoy et al. 2003; Ravel et al. 2007; Kempf et al. 2009a, b), as has population-specific variation in vector competence (e.g. Lambrechts et al. 2005; Joy et al. 2008).
Efforts to identify reservoir hosts for vector-borne zoonotic pathogens have historically been labor-intensive exercises, often requiring the capture of potential wildlife hosts, experimental infection with the pathogen of interest, and a subsequent examination of the efficiency with which these hosts pass the infectious agent to vector organisms under controlled conditions (10 ).
Climate's role in intensifying diseases carried by "vectors" — organisms transmitting pathogens and parasites — isn't as obvious as in heat-related conditions or pollen allergies.
