The effects of host availability and fitness on Aedes albopictus blood feeding patterns in New York

Aedes albopictus is a competent vector of numerous pathogens, representing a range of transmission cycles involving unique hosts. Despite the important status of this vector, variation in its feeding patterns is poorly understood. We examined the feeding patterns of Ae. albopictus utilizing resting collections in Long Island, New York, and contextualized blood meal sources with host availability measured by household interviews and camera traps. We identified 90 blood meals, including 29 human, 22 cat, 16 horse, 12 opossum, 5 dog, 2 goat, and 1 rabbit, rat, squirrel and raccoon. Our study is the first to quantitatively assess Ae. albopictus feeding patterns in the context of host availability of wild animals in addition to humans and domestic animals. Host feeding indices showed that cats and dogs were fed upon disproportionately often compared to humans. Forage ratios suggested a tendency to feed on cats and opossums and to avoid raccoons, squirrels, and birds. This feeding pattern was different from another published study from Baltimore, where Ae. albopictus fed more often on rats than humans. To understand if these differences were due to host availability or mosquito population variation, we compared the fitness of Long Island and Baltimore Ae. albopictus after feeding on rat and human blood. In addition, we examined fitness within the Long Island population after feeding on human, rat, cat, horse, and opossum blood. Together, our results do not show major mosquito fitness differences by blood hosts, suggesting that fitness benefits do not drive Northeastern Ae. albopictus feeding patterns.