Datos paleomagnéticos del sustrato rocoso de la isla de Livingston (Península Antártica): implicaciones tectónicas en la evolución neógena

Se presentan resultados paleomagnéticos de la Fo rmación Miers Bluff y de los diques terciarios y andesitas de la Isla de Livingston (Islas Shetland del Sur, Península A n t á rtica). La mayoría de las rocas estudiadas son portadoras de magnetización estable, que reside en una fase de baja coercividad, probablemente Ti-Magnetita. La restitución tectónica progresiva de las direcciones de magnetización remanente característica revela que la magnetización en las turbiditas de la Fm. Miers Bluff fue adquirida después del plegamiento. Las direcciones medias de los diques y de la Fm. Miers Bluff no ofrecen una diferencia significativa, sugiriendo una misma edad para la magnetización. Se propone que el origen de la misma es una remagnetización de edad terciaria. Asimismo, la posición de los polos paleomagnéticos obtenidos sugiere un basculamiento tectónico que estaría relacionado con la apertura y extensión en el Estrecho de Bransfield.We report paleomagnetic results from the Miers Bluff Formation and Tertiary dykes and andesites in Livingston Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula). Most of the samples carry stable magnetization, residing in a low coercivity phase, most likely (Ti)magnetite. Progressive untilting of the Characteristic Remanent Magnetization directions reveals that the magnetization of the turbidites (Miers Bluff Fm.) is post-folding. Miers Bluff and the dyke mean directions do not show any significant difference, suggesting the same magnetization age. Thus, a local Cenozoic remagnetization is proposed. Also, the paleomagnetic poles suggest a tectonic tilting that would explain the observed discrepancies between the produced paleopoles and the APWP for the Antarctic Peninsula

Paleomagnetic dating of non-sulfide Zn-Pb ores in SW Sardinia (Italy): a first attempt

A first paleomagnetic investigation aimed at constraining the age of the non-sulfide Zn-Pb ore deposits in the Iglesiente district (SW Sardinia, Italy) was carried out. In these ores, the oxidation of primary sulfides, hosted in Cambrian carbonate rocks, was related to several paleoweathering episodes spanning from the Mesozoic onward. Paleomagnetic analyses were performed on 43 cores from 4 different localities, containing: a) non-oxidized primary sulfides and host rock, b) oxidized Fe-rich hydrothermal dolomites and (c) supergene oxidation ore («Calamine»). Reliable data were obtained from 18 samples; the others show uninterpretable results due to low magnetic intensity or to scattered demagnetization trajectories. Three of them show a scattered Characteristic Remanent Magnetization (ChRM), likely carried by the original (i.e. Paleozoic) magnetic iron sulfides. The remaining 15 samples show a well defined and coherent ChRM, carried by high-coercivity minerals, acquired after the last phase of counterclockwise rotation of Sardinia (that is after 16 Myr), in a time interval long enough to span at least one reversal of the geomagnetic field. Hematite is the main magnetic carrier in the limestone, whereas weathered hydrothermal dolomite contains goethite or a mixture of both. The results suggest that paleomagnetism can be used to constrain the timing of oxidation in supergene-enriched ores

Infection and Transmission of Rift Valley Fever Viruses Lacking the NSs and/or NSm Genes in Mosquitoes: Potential Role for NSm in Mosquito Infection

Rift Valley fever virus is transmitted mainly by mosquitoes and causes disease in humans and animals throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The impact of disease is large in terms of human illness and mortality, and economic impact on the livestock industry. For these reasons, and because there is a risk of this virus spreading to Europe and North America, it is important to develop a vaccine that is stable, safe and effective in preventing infection. Potential vaccine viruses have been developed through deletion of two genes (NSs and NSm) affecting virus virulence. Because this virus is normally transmitted by mosquitoes we must determine the effects of the deletions in these vaccine viruses on their ability to infect and be transmitted by mosquitoes. An optimal vaccine virus would not infect or be transmitted. The viruses were tested in two mosquito species: Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. Deletion of the NSm gene reduced infection of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes indicating a role for the NSm protein in mosquito infection. The virus with deletion of both NSs and NSm genes was the best vaccine candidate since it did not infect Ae. aegypti and showed reduced infection and transmission rates in Cx. quinquefasciatus

Predicting Distribution of Aedes Aegypti and Culex Pipiens Complex, Potential Vectors of Rift Valley Fever Virus in Relation to Disease Epidemics in East Africa.

The East African region has experienced several Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreaks since the 1930s. The objective of this study was to identify distributions of potential disease vectors in relation to disease epidemics. Understanding disease vector potential distributions is a major concern for disease transmission dynamics. DIVERSE ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODELLING TECHNIQUES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR THIS PURPOSE: we present a maximum entropy (Maxent) approach for estimating distributions of potential RVF vectors in un-sampled areas in East Africa. We modelled the distribution of two species of mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens complex) responsible for potential maintenance and amplification of the virus, respectively. Predicted distributions of environmentally suitable areas in East Africa were based on the presence-only occurrence data derived from our entomological study in Ngorongoro District in northern Tanzania. Our model predicted potential suitable areas with high success rates of 90.9% for A. aegypti and 91.6% for C. pipiens complex. Model performance was statistically significantly better than random for both species. Most suitable sites for the two vectors were predicted in central and northwestern Tanzania with previous disease epidemics. Other important risk areas include western Lake Victoria, northern parts of Lake Malawi, and the Rift Valley region of Kenya. Findings from this study show distributions of vectors had biological and epidemiological significance in relation to disease outbreak hotspots, and hence provide guidance for the selection of sampling areas for RVF vectors during inter-epidemic periods

A hierarchical network approach for modeling Rift Valley fever epidemics with applications in North America

Rift Valley fever is a vector-borne zoonotic disease which causes high morbidity and mortality in livestock. In the event Rift Valley fever virus is introduced to the United States or other non-endemic areas, understanding the potential patterns of spread and the areas at risk based on disease vectors and hosts will be vital for developing mitigation strategies. Presented here is a general network-based mathematical model of Rift Valley fever. Given a lack of empirical data on disease vector species and their vector competence, this discrete time epidemic model uses stochastic parameters following several PERT distributions to model the dynamic interactions between hosts and likely North American mosquito vectors in dispersed geographic areas. Spatial effects and climate factors are also addressed in the model. The model is applied to a large directed asymmetric network of 3,621 nodes based on actual farms to examine a hypothetical introduction to some counties of Texas, an important ranching area in the United States of America (U.S.A.). The nodes of the networks represent livestock farms, livestock markets, and feedlots, and the links represent cattle movements and mosquito diffusion between different nodes. Cattle and mosquito (Aedes and Culex) populations are treated with different contact networks to assess virus propagation. Rift Valley fever virus spread is assessed under various initial infection conditions (infected mosquito eggs, adults or cattle). A surprising trend is fewer initial infectious organisms result in a longer delay before a larger and more prolonged outbreak. The delay is likely caused by a lack of herd immunity while the infections expands geographically before becoming an epidemic involving many dispersed farms and animals almost simultaneously

Drivers for Rift Valley fever emergence in Mayotte: A Bayesian modelling approach

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a major zoonotic and arboviral hemorrhagic fever. The conditions leading to RVF epidemics are still unclear, and the relative role of climatic and anthropogenic factors may vary between ecosystems. Here, we estimate the most likely scenario that led to RVF emergence on the island of Mayotte, following the 2006–2007 African epidemic. We developed the first mathematical model for RVF that accounts for climate, animal imports and livestock susceptibility, which is fitted to a 12-years dataset. RVF emergence was found to be triggered by the import of infectious animals, whilst transmissibility was approximated as a linear or exponential function of vegetation density. Model forecasts indicated a very low probability of virus endemicity in 2017, and therefore of re-emergence in a closed system (i.e. without import of infected animals). However, the very high proportion of naive animals reached in 2016 implies that the island remains vulnerable to the import of infectious animals. We recommend reinforcing surveillance in livestock, should RVF be reported is neighbouring territories. Our model should be tested elsewhere, with ecosystem-specific data

Temperature, Viral Genetics, and the Transmission of West Nile Virus by Culex pipiens Mosquitoes

The distribution and intensity of transmission of vector-borne pathogens can be strongly influenced by the competence of vectors. Vector competence, in turn, can be influenced by temperature and viral genetics. West Nile virus (WNV) was introduced into the United States of America in 1999 and subsequently spread throughout much of the Americas. Previously, we have shown that a novel genotype of WNV, WN02, first detected in 2001, spread across the US and was more efficient than the introduced genotype, NY99, at infecting, disseminating, and being transmitted by Culex mosquitoes. In the current study, we determined the relationship between temperature and time since feeding on the probability of transmitting each genotype of WNV. We found that the advantage of the WN02 genotype increases with the product of time and temperature. Thus, warmer temperatures would have facilitated the invasion of the WN02 genotype. In addition, we found that transmission of WNV accelerated sharply with increasing temperature, T, (best fit by a function of T4) showing that traditional degree-day models underestimate the impact of temperature on WNV transmission. This laboratory study suggests that both viral evolution and temperature help shape the distribution and intensity of transmission of WNV, and provides a model for predicting the impact of temperature and global warming on WNV transmission

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus in Iquitos, Peru: Urban Transmission of a Sylvatic Strain

Enzootic strains of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) have been isolated from febrile patients in the Peruvian Amazon Basin at low but consistent levels since the early 1990s. Through a clinic-based febrile surveillance program, we detected an outbreak of VEEV infections in Iquitos, Peru, in the first half of 2006. The majority of these patients resided within urban areas of Iquitos, with no report of recent travel outside the city. To characterize the risk factors for VEEV infection within the city, an antibody prevalence study was carried out in a geographically stratified sample of urban areas of Iquitos. Additionally, entomological surveys were conducted to determine if previously incriminated vectors of enzootic VEEV were present within the city. We found that greater than 23% of Iquitos residents carried neutralizing antibodies against VEEV, with significant associations between increased antibody prevalence and age, occupation, mosquito net use, and overnight travel. Furthermore, potential vector mosquitoes were widely distributed across the city. Our results suggest that while VEEV infection is more common in rural areas, transmission also occurs within urban areas of Iquitos, and that further studies are warranted to identify the precise vectors and reservoirs involved in urban VEEV transmission