Read the full story from the University of California Berkeley.
A new study of captured mosquitoes in Los Angeles finds that West Nile infection is strongly associated with average temperature, and that temperatures above 73 degrees Fahrenheit are highly favorable for West Nile transmission. As climate change brings hotter weather to the region, it is likely that cooler, coastal neighborhoods will be pushed into the ‘favorable’ zone, accelerating transmission of the virus.
Associated journal article: Nicholas K. Skaff, Qu Cheng, Rachel E. S. Clemesha, Philip A. Collender, Alexander Gershunov, Jennifer R. Head, Christopher M. Hoover, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Jason R. Rohr, Robert E. Snyder, Justin V. Remais (2020). “Thermal thresholds heighten sensitivity of West Nile virus transmission to changing temperatures in coastal California.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287 (1932): 20201065 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1065
