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1. Characterizing the Vector Data Ecosystem

   https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjad009  

   Lippi, Catherine A; Rund, Samuel S; Ryan, Sadie J (February 2023, Journal of Medical Entomology)

   Faraji, Ary (Ed.)

   Abstract A growing body of information on vector-borne diseases has arisen as increasing research focus has been directed towards the need for anticipating risk, optimizing surveillance, and understanding the fundamental biology of vector-borne diseases to direct control and mitigation efforts. The scope and scale of this information, in the form of data, comprising database efforts, data storage, and serving approaches, means that it is distributed across many formats and data types. Data ranges from collections records to molecular characterization, geospatial data to interactions of vectors and traits, infection experiments to field trials. New initiatives arise, often spanning the effort traditionally siloed in specific research disciplines, and other efforts wane, perhaps in response to funding declines, different research directions, or lack of sustained interest. Thusly, the world of vector data – the Vector Data Ecosystem – can become unclear in scope, and the flows of data through these various efforts can become stymied by obsolescence, or simply by gaps in access and interoperability. As increasing attention is paid to creating FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable, and Reusable) data, simply characterizing what is ‘out there’, and how these existing data aggregation and collection efforts interact, or interoperate with each other, is a useful exercise. This study presents a snapshot of current vector data efforts, reporting on level of accessibility, and commenting on interoperability using an illustration to track a specimen through the data ecosystem to understand where it occurs for the database efforts anticipated to describe it (or parts of its extended specimen data). 

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2. Assessing the value and knowledge gains from an online tick identification and tick-borne disease management course for the Southeastern United States

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19307-x  

   Lippi, Catherine_A; Gaff, Holly_D; White, Alexis_L; Ryan, Sadie_J (July 2024, BMC Public Health)

   Abstract BackgroundTick-borne diseases are a growing public health threat in the United States. Despite the prevalence and rising burden of tick-borne diseases, there are major gaps in baseline knowledge and surveillance efforts for tick vectors, even among vector control districts and public health agencies. To address this issue, an online tick training course (OTTC) was developed through the Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (SECOEVBD) to provide a comprehensive knowledge base on ticks, tick-borne diseases, and their management. MethodsThe OTTC consisted of training modules covering topics including tick biology, tick identification, tick-borne diseases, and public health, personal tick safety, and tick surveillance. The course was largely promoted to vector control specialists and public health employees throughout the Southeastern US. We collected assessment and survey data on participants to gauge learning outcomes, perceptions of the utility of knowledge gained, and barriers and facilitators to applying the knowledge in the field. ResultsThe OTTC was successful in increasing participants’ baseline knowledge across all course subject areas, with the average score on assessment increasing from 62.6% (pre-course) to 86.7% (post-course). More than half of participants (63.6%) indicated that they would definitely use information from the course in their work. Barriers to using information identified in the delayed assessment included lack of opportunities to apply skills (18.5%) and the need for additional specialized training beyond what the OTTC currently offers (18.5%), while the main facilitator (70.4%) for applying knowledge was having opportunities at work, such as an existing tick surveillance program. ConclusionsOverall, this OTTC demonstrated capacity to improve knowledge in a necessary and underserved public health field, and more than half of participants use or plan to use the information in their work. The geographic reach of this online resource was much larger than simply for the Southeastern region for which it was designed, suggesting a much broader need for this resource. Understanding the utility and penetrance of training programs such as these is important for refining materials and assessing optimal targets for training. 

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3. MIReVTD, a Minimum Information Standard for Reporting Vector Trait Data

   https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.27.634769  

   Ryan, Sadie J; Huxley, Paul J; Lippi, Catherine A; Pawar, Samraat; Cator, Lauren; Rund, Samuel SC; Johnson, Leah R (January 2025, bioRxiv)

   Abstract Vector-borne diseases pose a persistent and increasing challenge to human, animal, and agricultural systems globally. Mathematical modeling frameworks incorporating vector trait responses are powerful tools to assess risk and predict vector-borne disease impacts. Developing these frameworks and the reliability of their predictions hinge on the availability of experimentally derived vector trait data for model parameterization and inference of the biological mechanisms underpinning transmission. Trait experiments have generated data for many known and potential vector species, but the terminology used across studies is inconsistent, and accompanying publications may share data with insufficient detail for reuse or synthesis. The lack of data standardization can lead to information loss and prohibits analytical comprehensiveness. Here, we present MIReVTD, a Minimum Information standard for Reporting Vector Trait Data. Our reporting checklist balances completeness and labor- intensiveness with the goal of making these important experimental data easier to find and reuse, without onerous effort for scientists generating the data. To illustrate the standard, we provide an example reproducing results from anAedes aegyptimosquito study. 

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4. The influence of vector‐borne disease on human history: socio‐ecological mechanisms

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13675  

   Athni, Tejas_S; Shocket, Marta_S; Couper, Lisa_I; Nova, Nicole; Caldwell, Iain_R; Caldwell, Jamie_M; Childress, Jasmine_N; Childs, Marissa_L; De_Leo, Giulio_A; Kirk, Devin_G; et al (January 2021, Ecology Letters)

   Abstract Vector‐borne diseases (VBDs) are embedded within complex socio‐ecological systems. While research has traditionally focused on the direct effects of VBDs on human morbidity and mortality, it is increasingly clear that their impacts are much more pervasive. VBDs are dynamically linked to feedbacks between environmental conditions, vector ecology, disease burden, and societal responses that drive transmission. As a result, VBDs have had profound influence on human history. Mechanisms include: (1) killing or debilitating large numbers of people, with demographic and population‐level impacts; (2) differentially affecting populations based on prior history of disease exposure, immunity, and resistance; (3) being weaponised to promote or justify hierarchies of power, colonialism, racism, classism and sexism; (4) catalysing changes in ideas, institutions, infrastructure, technologies and social practices in efforts to control disease outbreaks; and (5) changing human relationships with the land and environment. We use historical and archaeological evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have shaped society and culture, focusing on case studies from four pertinent VBDs: plague, malaria, yellow fever and trypanosomiasis. By comparing across diseases, time periods and geographies, we highlight the enormous scope and variety of mechanisms by which VBDs have influenced human history. 

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5. Drivers and patterns of microbial community assembly in a Lyme disease vector

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5361  

   Couper, Lisa_I; Kwan, Jessica_Y; Ma, Joyce; Swei, Andrea (June 2019, Ecology and Evolution)

   Abstract Vector‐borne diseases constitute a major global health burden and are increasing in geographic range and prevalence. Mounting evidence has demonstrated that the vector microbiome can impact pathogen dynamics, making the microbiome a focal point in vector‐borne disease ecology. However, efforts to generalize preliminary findings across studies and systems and translate these findings into disease control strategies are hindered by a lack of fundamental understanding of the processes shaping the vector microbiome and the interactions therein. Here, we use 16S rRNA sequencing and apply a community ecology framework to analyze microbiome community assembly and interactions inIxodes pacificus, the Lyme disease vector in the western United States. We find that vertical transmission routes drive population‐level patterns inI. pacificusmicrobial diversity and composition, but that microbial function and overall abundance do not vary over time or between clutches. Further, we find that theI. pacificusmicrobiome is not strongly structured based on competition but assembles nonrandomly, potentially due to vector‐specific filtering processes which largely eliminate all but the dominant endosymbiont,Rickettsia. At the scale of the individualI. pacificus, we find support for a highly limited internal microbial community, and hypothesize that the tick endosymbiont may be the most important component of the vector microbiome in influencing pathogen dynamics. 

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