Importation of Exotic Arthropods of Medical and Veterinarian Importance in the United States

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Importation of Exotic Arthropods of Medical and
Veterinarian Importance in the United States

• William Wills
• Adjunct Professor
• Dept. Of Entomology, Soils and Plant Science
• Clemson University and
• Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
• Arnold School of Public Health
• University of South Carolina

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Mosquitoes (Diptera Culicidae)
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Aedes aegypti

• Africa
• Entered Charles town (Charleston) 1600's with
  slave ships
• Spread north to North Carolina and west to East
  Texas
• Vector - Yellow Fever and Dengue
• Artificial container mosquito

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Aedes albopictus

• South East Asia
• Entered US mid 1900's
• First found in Houston, Texas
• Spread over all of southern US and west to
  California
• Ecological homologue of Aedes aegypti
• Vector - Dengue (South East Asia) WNV???

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Ochlerotatus japonicus

• Japan, India
• Entered US in 1999 New York and New Jersey
• Spread to Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio
• Collected south to South Carolina and Georgia
  through the Appalachian Range
• Found in tree holes, rubber tires but mostly rock
  pools
• Ecological homologue of Ochlerotatus atropalpus
• Vector - WNV? Jap. B to mice in Lab? Dog Heart
  Worm?

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Culex coronator

• Complex of sp. from Argentina to southern US
• Tropical sp. probably entered from Mexico
• Breeds in semi-permanent water, roadside ditches,
  etc.
• Vector experimental vector of SLE

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Other introduced mosquitoes

• Culex biscaynensis South Florida
• Ochlerotatus bahamensis South Florida
• Light and oviposition traps
• Miami (Dade County)
• Aedes togoi Canada Washington State
• Artificial containers, imported tires
• Toxorhynchites brevipalpus Hawaii
• Toxorhynchites ambionensis Hawaii
• Toxorhynchites moctezuma South Arizona, 1969
• Wyeomyia mitchelli South Florida
• Miami (Dade County)

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Myiasis

• The Lunds Fly, Blowfly (Cordylobia rodhaini)
• Cutaneous myiasis or traumatic myiasis
• Recovered from right forearm of South Carolina
  patient who returned from Africa
• Identified by Dr. Christopher Evans at SC DHEC
• Diptera Calliphoridae
• Entered California and Texas 1950's or later
• Chrysomya sp. 13 year old canine
• 4 additional sp. US, serous fly

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Fleas

• The Oriental Rat Flea, cosmopolitan
• Eastern US 17th century
• Western US early 20th century or earlier
• Vector of Plague, Murine typhus
• Hawaii 1893 San Francisco, California 1903

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Lice

• The Human Body Louse, cosmopolitan
• Entered new world with the Spanish
• Vector of typhus wiped out Indians in Mexico
• Probably many lice introduced but not recognized?

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Beetles

• Asiatic Garden Beetle
• 1964 Boy Scout Jamboree
• Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

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Ticks

• Keirans and Durden 2001
• Reviewed Lit. and unpublished records from Nat.
  Tick collection 50 years records
• Revealed at least 99 exotic species assigned to
  11 genera that have either detected and destroyed
  at ports of entry or inadvertently imported in
  the US
• 4 soft tick sp
• 95 hard tick sp

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Ticks (cont.)

• Recent interest because of Heart water disease
• Both agent and tick species are residents of
  various Caribbean Islands
• Brown dog tick
• Red Bunt tick
• 2004 Exotic Tick on Komodo Dragon
• New genera imported (Aponomma kamodoense) in Zoo
  in Florida
• 2005 Dealers, collectors, Zoos, Game farms, Pet
  stores

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Ticks (cont.)

• 2006 Dr. Will Reeves examined a grays monitor
  lizard that when dead was donated to the Campbell
  Museum at Clemson that had been frozen for 10
  years.
• He and coworkers found the nostrils packed with
  an exotic sp. of tick.

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Ticks (cont.)

• 2006 Burridge and workers reported 7 species of
  exotic ticks imported into Florida 2005 with 2
  new sp from 2 pythons from Indonesia Islands
• Recently - Mark Nelder, graduate student at
  Clemson University collected a tick from an Asian
  water monitor at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia,
  SC

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Ticks (cont.)

• Human importations from South Africa to Florida
• Female from Florida attended week long meeting
  and game viewing. Tick attached behind her knee
• Other record on human from South Africa from
  Connecticut

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How Do They Come In On ?

• Everything
• Snakes, lizards, tortoise, other reptiles,
  humans, dogs, people, feces and other mammals

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From Where?

• Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico
  and Europe

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Arrival, Establishment, Spread

• Other potential vectors
• Black flies
• Tsetse flies
• Reduviid bugs (Kissing bugs)
• Bed bugs
• Sand flies

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Rats

• Roof Rat
• Norway Rat
• Fruit Rat

Roof Rat
Norway Rat
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Thanks to

• Dr. Lance Durden
• Dr. Chris Evans
• Dr. Will Reeves
• Dr. Ivo Foppa
• Mark Nelder
• Minoo Madin