Mapping the Habitat Suitability of West Nile Virus Vectors in Southern Quebec and Eastern Ontario, Canada, with Species Distribution Modeling and Satellite Earth Observation Data

Transmission of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) relies on the presence their vectors. Good knowledge habitat distribution could inform and then potential transmission risk. In Canada, West Nile virus (WNV), a VBD transmitted by mosquitoes Culex genus to birds, humans, other mammals, was first reported in 2002. Since then, human cases have been every year. To reduce health burden disease guide vector control efforts, this work aims provide map suitability main vectors WNV, pipiens-restuans, southern Quebec eastern Ontario at 30 m spatial resolution. Landsat 8-OTI/TIRS images were combined with existing geographical data characterize vegetated paved areas urban peri-urban create land use cover related environmental determinants pipiens-restuans. Landscape metrics calculated neighborhood environment. They used 1008 sites build species models Maxent, model based maximum entropy principle, predict for pipiens-restuans study area. The performance very good, mean area under curve 0.92 continuous Boyce index 0.97. A whole created resulting environment analysis highlight importance edge vegetation mixed or bio-ecology