Mattia Manicai is a researcher at Fondazione Edmund Mach. His presentation will be centered around one of the most recent publications he has contributed to, titled “Spring temperature shapes West Nile Virus (WNV) transmission in Europe” (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2020.105796). Mattia explains how spatio-temporal conditions will shape WNV transmissions, why WNV circulation tends to be higher in warmer regions, how the impact of change of temperatures due to approaching spring time on WNV transmissions can be predicted, and why new results in conjunction with previous findings can serve as indicators for the reliability of surveillance systems and WNV’s overwintering capacity.

Dr. Laura Kramer has 50 years’ experience studying arboviruses in the field and laboratory, from both experimental and observational approaches, using both classical and molecular tools. She was Director of the Arbovirus Laboratory, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health from 2000 – Dec 2020 when she retired, and Professor of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York (SUNY) School of Public Health, Albany, NY. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Biology department at SUNY Albany. Dr. Kramer also is a virology moderator of ProMED-mail [Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases] where she reports on COVID-19 and Ebola as well as vaccine-preventable diseases. In this MOOD Science Webinar, Laura discussed her comprehensive research paper “Introduction, Spread, and Establishment of West Nile Virus in the Americas” published on the Journal of Medical Entomology, illustrating the complex relationships among West Nile Virus (WNV), vector mosquitoes and vertebrate hosts, as well as how certain environmental variables – including land use and climate – affected the spillover risk to humans in the United States since its introduction.

Serafin Gutierrez’s main interests are virus ecology and evolution. Along mhis career, he has worked with different viral pathogens of insects, plants and vertebrates. Currently, his group works on various aspects of the ecology and evolution of arthropod-borne viruses, including the discovery of new zoonotic viruses. Moreover, his team explores the viral community or virome of insect vectors and its potential influence on arbovirus epidemiology. In this webinar, Serafin presented a collaborative work on West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV), including teams involved in both human and veterinary health. These viruses follow a similar enzootic cycle involving mosquitoes and birds. However, they can also infect humans and other mammals, leading to severe disease. Their epidemiological situation may have shifted from irregular epidemics to endemicity in several European regions. This potential change requires confirmation, as it could have implications for risk assessment and surveillance strategies. To this end, the team has evaluated the prevalence and genetics of WNV and USUV in a cross-sectional study in humans, dogs, horses, birds and mosquitoes in the French Camargue area, between 2016 and 2020. Their findings support endemisation in the study region. Serafin also presented future research directions in his group.