| Birmingham, Alabama has experienced several mosquito-borne epidemics, including Saint Louis encephalitis (SLE) and West Nile virus (WNV). Despite the outbreak of these diseases, the city lacks a mosquito surveillance program that would assist in vector control efforts. In order to assess the possible advantages of implementing a surveillance system for the city, three neighborhoods were chosen for surveys based on the fact that past epidemics have been concentrated in these areas. During the two surveillance years, 2009 had more abundance of mosquitoes and more species variability than the 2010 season. Overall, as abundance of mosquitoes increased in a particular site, all indexes (species richness, Simpson's, Shannons and dominant species indexes) also increased, except for evenness. After determining a difference in the two surveillance years, meteorological data had little effect in determining abundance; this was also observed when the main vectors of SLE and WNV were taken into consideration. To extend the control of mosquito to clusters of potential mosquito breeding sites may be of interest to abatement districts. |
