Graduate Assistant University of Florida Vero Beach, Florida
Non-human malaria parasites of the genus, Plasmodium, are present in a variety of ungulates in the Old World. The white-tailed deer (WTD) is the only known host to Plasmodium in the New World. It is thought that P. odocoilei and WTD diverged from the Old World 2.3 to 6 million years ago. The first mention of Plasmodium odocoilei present in WTD was in 1987. The research of the morphology and transmission cycle of deer was untouched until 2016. Mosquito surveillance had found that Anopheles punctipennis obtain a WTD blood meal positive with P. odocoilei. Later, studies found that P. odocoilei is present in 25% of the wild WTD population and can co-infect with epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV). Deer farmer industries already have major loss of revenue from EHDV rates killing their WTD herds. It is important to incriminate the vector in order to study the infection rates of deer malaria and co-infection of EHDV. The study had surveyed mosquitoes at deer farms in north Florida. Mosquitoes were collected with CDC light traps, aspirators, and resting shelters. We performed a blood meal analysis to detect the host that the mosquito had fed on. Then a nested polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing were performed to test the infection rate of P. odocoilei. The preliminary data showed that Culex erraticus and Anopheles crucians had the highest abundance at the deer farms, as well as the highest feeding rate of WTD. The nested PCR was also successful with detecting various Plasmodium spp.