Martina Ferraguti

• Ph.D. in Biology
• Ramón y Cajal Researcher at Doñana Biological Station

The Wildlife Malaria Network (WIMANET) is an EU‐COST‐funded global network of researchers and stakeholders interested in wildlife malaria and related haemosporidian parasites. The network has six working groups covering a diverse range of core topics within wildlife malaria research, focusing on genetics and genomics, species identification, vector...

Introduction Recently, as the effects of anthropogenic climate change (ACC) become evident, vector-borne diseases (VBD) are spreading and establishing in temperate regions of the world. We investigated whether these two phenomena are related. We hypothesized that ACC has turned many areas, previously considered “unsuitable” for sustaining VBD cycle...

Vector-borne diseases pose significant challenges to public health, with mosquitoes acting as crucial vectors for pathogens globally. This study explores the interaction between environmental and climate factors, investigating their influence on the abundance and species composition of mosquitoes in southwestern Spain, a region endemic to several m...

The Wildlife Malaria Network (WIMANET) is a groundbreaking multinational collaboration focused on studying vector-borne haemosporidian parasites in wildlife. Unlike human malaria, wildlife malaria is found on all continents except Antarctica, with parasites being transmitted by a range of vectors. The complexity and diversity of these parasites mak...

Simple Summary Feathers are essential for a bird’s flight, insulation, communication, and camouflage. They degrade over time, so birds must moult regularly. This study examined how avian haemosporidian infection and the size of the uropygial gland affect feather quality and growth rate in two migratory bird species in southwestern Spain—the house m...

Background: Research on vector-borne diseases has traditionally centred on a limited number of vertebrate hosts and their associated pathogens, often neglecting the broader array of vectors within communities. Mosquitoes, with their vast species diversity, hold a central role in disease transmission, yet their capacity to transmit specific pathoge...

ABSTRACT West Nile virus (WNV) is the most widely distributed mosquito-borne flavivirus in the world. This flavivirus can infect humans causing in some cases a fatal neurological disease and birds are the main reservoir hosts. WNV is endemic in Spain, and human cases have been reported since 2004. Although different studies analyse how climatic co...

Malaria remains one of the most important infectious diseases globally due to its high incidence and mortality rates. The influx of infected cases from endemic to non-endemic malaria regions like Europe has resulted in a public health concern over sporadic local outbreaks. This is facilitated by the continued presence of competent Anopheles vectors...

Avian malaria parasites provide an important model for studying host-pathogen interactions, yet understanding their dynamics in vectors under natural conditions is limited. We investigated the effect of vector abundance, species richness and diversity, and habitat characteristics on avian Plasmodium prevalence and lineage richness in Culex pipiens...

Background: Vector-borne diseases like West Nile virus (WNV) pose a global health challenge, with rising incidence and distribution. Culex mosquitoes are crucial WNV vectors. Avian species composition and bird community diversity, along with vector communities, influence WNV transmission patterns. However, limited knowledge exists on their impact i...

Bakground: Vector-borne diseases affecting humans, wildlife and livestock have significantly increased their incidence and distribution in the last decades. Because the interaction among vectors-parasite-vertebrate hosts plays a key role driving vector-borne disease transmission, the analyses of the diversity and structure of vector-parasite networ...

The invasion of vector-borne diseases depends on the type of specific features of the vector and hosts at play. Within the Culex pipiens complex, differences in ecology, biology, and vector competence can influence the risk of West Nile virus (WNV) outbreaks. To determine which life-history traits affect WNV invasion into susceptible communities th...

ContextVector-borne diseases (VBD) are a worldwide public health problem for humans and wildlife. 'Global Change' such as habitat alteration and land-use intensification, biotic exchange, the introduction of invasive alien species, and climate change have all been linked to an increased occurrence of VBDs.Objectives To evaluate the impact of land-u...

Mosquitoes, including invasive species like the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus, alongside native species Culex pipiens s.l., pose a significant nuisance to humans and serve as vectors for mosquito-borne diseases in urban areas. Understanding the impact of water infrastructure characteristics, climatic conditions, and management strategies on...

Aim The increasing spread of vector‐borne diseases has resulted in severe health concerns for humans, domestic animals and wildlife, with changes in land use and the introduction of invasive species being among the main possible causes for this increase. We explored several ecological drivers potentially affecting the local prevalence and richness...

The invasion of vector-borne diseases depends on the type of specific features of the vector and hosts at play. Within the Culex pipiens complex, differences in ecology, biology, and vector competence can influence the risk of West Nile virus (WNV) outbreaks. To determine which life-history traits are most important, we constructed an epidemiologic...

Usutu virus (USUV) is an emerging zoonotic arbovirus that has caused an increasing number of animal and human cases in Europe in recent years. Understanding the vector species and avian hosts involved in the USUV enzootic cycle in an area of active circulation is vital to anticipate potential outbreaks. Mosquitoes were captured in 2020, while wild...

Living organisms are exposed to a wide range of substances - internal and external - which act like reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidative damage accurs when the balance between ROS and antioxidant defenses is altered. Urbanization and parasite infection are both important sources of ROS with different harmful effects on wildlife health, but the...

Human and animal vector-borne diseases, particularly mosquito-borne diseases, are emerging or re-emerging worldwide. Six Aedes invasive mosquito (AIM) species were introduced to Europe since the 1970s: Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Ae. japonicus, Ae. koreicus, Ae. atropalpus and Ae. triseriatus. Here, we report the results of AIMSurv2020, the firs...

The Mosquito Alert dataset includes occurrence records of adult mosquitoes collected worldwide in 2014–2020 through Mosquito Alert, a citizen science system for investigating and managing disease-carrying mosquitoes. Records are linked to citizen science-submitted photographs and validated by entomologists to determine the presence of five targeted...

We explore the presence of zoonotic flaviviruses (West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV)) neutralizing antibodies in rarely studied passerine bird species. We report, for the first time in Europe, WNV-specific antibodies in red avadavat and cetti’s warbler, and USUV in yellow-crowned bishop. The evidence of WNV and USUV circulating in residen...

Anthropogenic activities such as intensification of agriculture, animal husbandry and expansion of cities can negatively impact wildlife through its influence on the availability of high-quality food resources and pathogen transmission. The house sparrow (Passer domesticus), an urban exploiter, is undergoing a population decline. Nutritional constr...

Lachryphagous males of Phortica variegata (Fallén, 1823) are gaining increasing attention in Europe, as they act as vectors of the nematode Thelazia callipaeda Railliet & Henry, 1910, causal agent of thelaziosis, an emergent zoonotic disease. Currently, there are no effective control strategies against the vector, and surveillance and monitoring re...

Humans and wildlife are at risk from certain vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, and West Nile and yellow fevers. Factors linked to global change, including habitat alteration, landuse intensification, the spread of alien species, and climate change, are operating on a global scale and affect both the incidence and distribution of many v...

The Dilution Effect Hypothesis (DEH) argues that greater biodiversity lowers the risk of disease and reduces the rates of pathogen transmission since more diverse communities harbour fewer competent hosts for any given pathogen, thereby reducing host exposure to the pathogen. DEH is expected to operate most intensely in vector-borne pathogens and w...

Urbanization is an important human-driven process that leads to biodiversity loss and alters the interactions between organisms, including disease transmission. Although urbanization affects both host and vector communities, the effects on vector-borne pathogens are still poorly understood. Here, we monitored variation in prevalence and richness of...

With a population of nearly 8 billion humans, the planet is going through rapid unprecedented change. Human activities cause deforestation, desertification, urbanization, and climate change, all of which are affecting the tropical regions of the world. For example, it is clear that anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can rapidly increase...

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito‐borne emerging virus in Europe with capacity to cause neurological complications such as encephalitis or meningoencephalitis in humans, birds or equids. In Spain, WNV is actively circulating in mosquitoes, birds and horses in different regions, but never has been deeply studied in Extremadura. Therefore, the aim...

Vector‐borne diseases, especially those transmitted by mosquitoes, have severe impacts on public health and economy. West Nile virus (WNV) and avian malaria parasites of the genus Plasmodium, are mosquito‐borne pathogens that may produce severe disease and illness in humans and birds, respectively, and circulate in an endemic form in southern Europ...

Changes in environmental conditions, whether related or not to human activities, are continuously modifying the geographic distribution of vectors, which in turn affects the dynamics and distribution of vector-borne infectious diseases. Determining the main ecological drivers of vector distribution and how predicted changes in these drivers may alt...

Wetlands provide multiple services to human societies. Despite policies dedicated to their protection, current European policies do not address the need to balance mosquito management approaches to mitigate dis‐services to human health and well‐being while ensuring that wetland conservation goals are met. Herein, we outline criteria for considerati...

Background: Avian malaria parasites are a highly diverse group that commonly infect birds and have deleterious effects on their hosts. Some parasite lineages are geographically widespread and infect many host species in many regions. Bird migration, natural dispersal, invasive species and human-mediated introductions into areas where competent ins...

Mosquito feeding preferences determine host–vector contact rates and represent a key factor in the transmission of vector‐borne pathogens. The semiochemical compounds of which vertebrate odours are composed probably play a role in mosquito host choice. Birds spread secretions from uropygial gland over their feathers to protect their plumage, compri...

Mosquitoes are the main vectors of pathogens affecting wild animals, livestock and humans. Here, we used molecular tools to assess the local circulation of filarial parasites in mosquitoes collected during 2013 from natural, rural and urban habitats from southern Spain. We screened parasites in 22,791 female mosquitoes of the genera Aedes, Culex an...

Human landscape transformation, especially urbanization, strongly affects ecosystems worldwide. Both urban stressors and parasites have negative effects on organism health, however the potential synergy between those factors has been poorly investigated. We analysed the body condition (i.e. body mass after controlling for wing chord) of 2043 house...

Mosquitoes play a central role in the transmission of vector‐borne pathogens causing important diseases in humans, livestock and wildlife. The identification of mosquito blood feeding preferences represents an essential step in epidemiological studies to identify the potential reservoirs and the contact rates between infective and susceptible hosts...

Vector and host communities, as well as habitat characteristics, may have important but different impacts on the prevalence, richness and evenness of vector‐borne parasites. We investigated the relative importance of (1) the mosquito community composition, (2) the vertebrate community composition and (3) landscape characteristics on the prevalence,...

Mosquito community composition plays a central role in the transmission of zoonotic vector-borne pathogens. We evaluated how the mosquito community a ects the seroprevalence of West Nile virus (WNV) in house sparrows along an urbanisation gradient in an area with the endemic circulation of this virus. We sampled 2544 birds and 340829 mosquitoes in...

Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are vectors of pathogens that affect wildlife, livestock and, occasionally, humans. Culicoides imicola (Kieffer, 1913) is considered to be the main vector of the pathogens that cause bluetongue disease (BT) and African horse sickness (AHS) in southern Europe. The study of blood-feeding patterns in Culicoides is...

La alteración del hábitat y la urbanización afectan de distinto modo a las especies de mosquitos transmisores de enfermedades. Conocerlo con detalle resulta fundamental para la salud humana y animal.

Avipoxvirus (APV) is a fairly common virus affecting birds that causes morbidity and mortality in wild and captive birds. We studied the prevalence of pox-like lesions and genetic diversity of APV in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in natural, agricultural and urban areas in southern Spain in 2013 and 2014 and in central Spain for 8 months (2012...

Macroscopic appearance of PCR confirmed Avipox lesions in two house sparrows (A and C; B: detail of lesion A). Lesions were wart-like growths (0.5–6 mm in diameter) which can range in colour from yellow or white in the early stages to brown or black when the formation of crusty scabs become. Smaller lesions can be quite cryptic. (TIF)

Background The wide spread mosquito Culex pipiens pipiens have two forms molestus and pipiens which frequently hybridize. The two forms have behavioural and physiological differences affecting habitat requirements and host selection, which may affect the transmission dynamic of Cx. p. pipiens-borne diseases. Methods During 2013, blood engorged Cx....

Anthropogenic landscape transformation has an important effect on vector-borne pathogen transmission. However, the effects of urbanization on mosquito communities are still only poorly known. Here, we evaluate how land-use characteristics are related to the abundance and community composition of mosquitoes in an area with endemic circulation of num...

West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging vector-borne arbovirus with a zoonotic life-cycle whose main reservoir hosts are birds. In humans and horses, WNV infections rarely result in clinical disease but on occasions – depending on factors such as climatic conditions, insect communities and background immunity levels in local populations – they can lea...

Todos sabemos que Doñana es desde hace décadas un laboratorio a cielo abierto ideal para estudiar los procesos naturales y los sistemas ecológicos. Lo que quizás muy pocos conozcan es que una de las investigaciones más apasionantes que acoge tiene como protagonistas a mosquitos, aves silvestres y parásitos sanguíneos. Nos referimos a la malaria avi...

Cincuenta años después de su creación, ¿qué se investiga actualmente en la Estación Biológica de Doñana? Ahora hay técnicas de estudio muy avanzadas, el ámbito de actuación abarca el mundo entero y, por supuesto, se han incorporado nuevos científicos. Pero el interés por escudriñar la biodiversidad sigue vigente.

Os insetos vetores atuam como intermediários na transmissão de agentes patogénicos entre os hospedeiros. O estudo da seleção do hospedeiro não é fácil e, neste sentido, o desenvolvimento de técnicas moleculares baseadas na amplificação do material genético, desempenha um papel fundamental.

Diversity may be evaluated by adopting different hierarchical approaches. In this study, we analyzed the breeding bird communities of five habitats spatially distributed along a gradient of landscape vegetation in central Italy. We highlighted their structural differences at three hierarchical diversity metrics (α-, β- and γ-diversity). The beech f...

Hole-nesting birds include species highly dependent on old trees or dead wood for nesting, roosting, breeding and feeding. In this study we characterize the assemblages of these species occurring in five different habitat types located in a heterogeneous Mediterranean landscape. We used the point count method. In all habitat types, tits (Parus majo...

The heterogeneity in parasite transmission rates can have important consequences for the evolution of virulence of parasites. The study of interaction between avian malaria parasites-mosquitoes-birds is an excellent model to identify these evolutionary mechanisms. Although mosquitoes are crucial elements in the transmission of avian malaria parasit...

Blood-sucking flying insects play a key role in the transmission of pathogens of vector-borne diseases. However, at least for the case of avian malaria parasites, the vast majority of studies focus on the interaction between parasites and vertebrate hosts, but there is a lack of information regarding the interaction between the parasites and the in...

Haemosporidians, a group of vector-borne parasites that include Plasmodium, infect vertebrates including birds. Although mosquitoes are crucial elements in the transmission of avian malaria parasites, little is known of their ecology as vectors. We examined the presence of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus lineages in five mosquito species belonging to t...

In this study, we obtained data on the structure of two intra-seasonal breeding bird assemblages of a Mediterranean low-altitude beech forests (about 400 m a.s.l.), an ecosystem type of high eco-biogeographic interest and little known in this sense. We sampled 22 breeding bird species (20 sedentary species and two long migrants) with the point coun...

Diversity may be evaluated by adopting different hierarchical approaches. In this study, we analyzed the breeding bird communities of five habitats spatially distributed along a gradient of landscape vegetation in central Italy. We highlighted their structural differences at three hierarchical diversity metrics (α-, β- and γ-diversity). The beech f...

Hole-nesting birds include species highly dependent on old trees or dead wood for nesting , roosting, breeding and feeding. In this study we characterize the assemblages of these species occurring in five different habitat types located in a heterogeneous Mediterranean landscape. We used the point count method. In all habitat types, tits (Parus maj...

In this study, we obtained data on the structure of two intra-seasonal breeding bird assemblages of a Mediterranean low-altitude beech forests (about 400 m a.s.l.), an ecosystem type of high eco-biogeographic interest and little known in this sense. We sampled 22 breeding bird species (20 sedentary species and two long migrants) with the point coun...

Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) biting midges are vectors for a diversity of pathogens including bluetongue virus (BTV) that generate important economic losses. BTV has expanded its range in recent decades, probably due to the expansion of its main vector and the presence of other autochthonous competent vectors. Although the Canary Islands a...