The factors selected by the heartworm working group are listed and discussed here, grouped by vector, parasite, and host factors. Some factors, such as temperature, are important to multiple factor groups (vector and parasite). Two criteria in selecting factors were that 1) the factor can be easily measured and 2) data for it are available.
Vector factors
Dog heartworm is a mosquito-transmitted disease with a cosmopolitan distribution[7, 8]. The mosquito becomes infected when it ingests microfilaria during the act of blood feeding on an infectious host. To be a competent vector of D. immitis, mosquitoes must be able to support nematode development into the infective stage (L3), and the infective larvae must be able to migrate to the proboscis of the mosquito[9]. Over 60 species of mosquitoes are capable of supporting the development of L3 D. immitis[7]. Summaries of mosquito species naturally infected with D. immitis in 19 states have appeared in previous publications[10–12]. In the US, multiple studies on potential heartworm vectors have been conducted; however, most studies were restricted to certain locations. Without known vector distribution data from the majority of states, estimates are needed to identify areas where each vector occurs and to what abundance. This distributional data can then be used to identify areas with greater risk for heartworm transmission. With a number of mosquito species likely playing different roles across different regions of the US[9] and taking into account mosquito vector competence data either obtained naturally and/or experimentally, nine species were identified as major potential vectors for national forecast modeling. These species are Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Aedes canadensis, Aedes sierrensis, Aedes trivitattus, Aedes vexans, Anopheles punctipennis, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, and Culex quinquefasciatus.
For most of the nine mosquito species chosen, published maps illustrating their geographical home ranges within North America exist[12]. As many of the mosquito species have varying frequency distributions within even small ranges, the historical literature can serve as a starting point for fine-tuning the representation of their ranges. For species, such as Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti, where competition between the species has led to changes in their historical ranges[13, 14], new geographical distribution data can be made available as it is accumulated.
Additional vector maps can be generated using surveillance data and habitat modeling, but quality surveillance data are notoriously difficult to acquire. Consequently, there is a need to use surrogate factors. Possible surrogates for actual presence/absence or abundance maps of these mosquito species include: 1) vegetation indices (derived from satellite imagery or classified land cover maps); 2) urbanization as it relates to rural, suburban, and urban landscapes; and 3) meteorological data to capture inter-annual variability. As new mosquito distribution maps are generated, they will ideally be examined by entomologists to verify that they represent current species ranges.
Vegetation indices
A synopsis of various mosquito species that breed in different habitats can be made available and overlaid on land cover, cropland, and irrigation maps of the US. For example, previous studies that have focused on mosquitoes associated with forested environments (Ae. sierrensis and An. punctipennis)[15], rice production (An. quadrimaculatus)[16], and irrigation could provide data for map generation. These data can be included both as dominant type of vegetation/cropland or as a percentage of each type by county.
Rural, suburban, and urban landscapes
Certain mosquito species are more prevalent in urban environments due to differences in their preference for particular oviposition sites. Mosquito species that breed in artificial containers tend to be more urbanized, such as Cx. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti. The spatial and temporal distribution of Cx. quinquefasciatus in residential areas[17] and underground storm drains has been well documented[18, 19], and this type of information may be useful for modeling. Human population data from the US Census Bureau and land cover classified imagery with urban, rural, suburban land use classes may be helpful inputs for the model to capture measures of urbanization.
Meteorological data
Mosquito development rates are temperature- dependent and completion of the immature stages is dependent on water availability. In a forecasting model, weather (daily and monthly, and at various time lags) is expected to influence intra-annual fluctuations. In a static spatial model, climate, rather than weather, may better govern the likelihood a vector can complete its lifecycle. In an effort to incorporate these influences, we recommend including temperature (minimum, maximum, mean, and daily variability) and moisture index (calculated based on precipitation and evaporation rates)[20]. The moisture index M(t) at day t over the current and previous L days is
where P(i) and E(i) are the precipitation and evaporation from day i, respectively. Moisture indices may be more meaningful than rainfall because they take into account the moisture deficit prior to rainfall and estimate the net moisture in terms of standing water available to egg-laying mosquitoes.
Related indirect factors that could plausibly influence heartworms include: 1) relative humidity, 2) elevation, and 3) daily circadian-related events in mosquito behavior. Relative humidity influences vector behavior and survival. Elevation may serve as a surrogate of the climate expected at a given location. Circadian activity is important to some vector species’ behavior[21, 22].
Parasite factors
Several issues were identified relative to the parasite and its development within the vector and host. Heartworm Development Units (HDUs) as they relate to nematode development in mosquitoes and the lag period between infection and detection in the data on the current antigen detection maps were considered other important factors.
The D. immitis lifecycle consists of several developmental stages in both the mosquito vector and vertebrate hosts[9, 23–25]. Heartworm transmission is driven by the ambient temperatures experienced by their mosquito vectors. As a consequence, ambient air temperature is used to predict the timing of dog heartworm vector competence[26, 27]. The heat requirement for heartworms to complete incubation to the infective stage can be expressed in development degree days, or HDUs. A simple way to calculate HDUs using maximum and minimum air temperatures is to subtract the heartworm development threshold (14°C) from the average daily temperature[9, 26]. Accumulated HDUs are summed from a determined starting day, similar to the moisture index equation above. If hourly temperatures are utilized, the summation of the difference in hourly temperature from 14°C can be divided by 24. The number of accumulated degree days required for development to infective parasite stage is 130[27], although this value may vary by strain of the parasite. D. immitis larval survival and development within a mosquito is consequently dependent on temperature and its fluctuations --- larval heartworms are capable of slowing and recommencing development in a temperature-dependent fashion. In addition, D. immitis larval survival is dependent on survival of its invertebrate vector as the infected mosquito must survive the parasite burden and ingest another blood meal from a dog in order to transmit the infective larval stages. Taken together, these findings suggest that predicting future temperature variation and accumulated thermal units may be key in predicting heartworm.
The D. immitis antigen does not appear in the blood of heartworm infected dogs until 6 to 9 months after infection[9, 23, 27, 28]. Therefore, a positive test for heartworm often indicates an infection acquired sometime during the previous year. The CAPC dataset does not include information on whether positive cases are regular or new patients. Therefore, all cases are viewed to represent infections acquired more than 6 months previously. As these data are used to develop forecasting models, it will be critical that factors are considered over an appropriate history. We recommend examining factors between 7 months and 2 years prior to the current date.
Host factors
Heartworm hosts, principally the domestic dog, Canis familiaris, but wild canids also maintain the parasite and infect mosquitoes[11]. Effective heartworm prevention is available for domestic dogs, but compliance is insufficient to control the disease (only 74%-79% of dogs visiting the veterinary teaching hospital at the University of Pennsylvania [VHUP] from January 1999 through December 2006 were being given preventive at any given time of year)[29].
Measures of the size and infection status of these susceptible and at-risk populations will be important to estimating the spatial risk of disease. Although dogs evacuated from the Gulf coast states following the 2005 hurricanes presented as 48.8% dirofilariasis-positive[30], the percentage positive rate among the general population of owned dogs is expected to be much less. Ideally, data would be available on the susceptible population of companion animals, coyotes, and feral dogs. However, such data are likely difficult to acquire. Surrogates for assessing the susceptible population include estimates of feral /wild populations, sales data on HW prevention for companion animals, and socioeconomic factors.
Unprotected reservoirs
Feral dogs and coyotes are perhaps the most significant heartworm reservoirs in North America as these competent reservoir populations are not covered through a prophylactic program. Indeed, many infections in non-protected domestic dogs (or dogs receiving inadequate protection) are probably a major source of infection via mosquitoes for other domestic dogs. These populations support parasite development and routinely have circulating microfilariae infective to mosquitoes[31–33]. Unfortunately, accurate data on their population size and the prevalence of heartworm within a given population is difficult to obtain, however, the working group considered this information to be valuable. As such, obtaining population size data for coyotes from wildlife authorities and on stray dogs from animal control agencies could be achieved through telephone inquiries. Methods have been developed that provide for coyote population estimates and their relative reliability[34].
Background heartworm prevalence in reservoir populations could be estimated from published coyote survey results, as well data from dogs in shelters. Many reports on coyote and other wild canid species’ Dirofilaria infections have been published with report rates as high as 71%[35]; however, most surveys occurred in the early 1980’s[36]. More recent surveys conducted in Oklahoma/Texas, Illinois, Florida and California have reported 6.5, 16, 40 and 42-44% of coyotes being positive[36–40]. In contrast, studies in Arizona and eastern Washington state reported no coyote infections[41, 42], while a separate recent survey of Arizona wild canids (feral dogs and coyotes) reported that 14% were positive for heartworm[43]. Such divergent results emphasize the care needed to utilize a sentinel survey of feral canines.
Regional data on the percentage of dogs on prevention or doses of product sold
There are two populations of canids in any heartworm infected area: canids on preventive therapy and canids that are not. Many of the dogs being tested are likely from the protected population. As the protection status of each tested dog is not available in the CAPC data, surrogate factors might prove useful. For example, data on the total dog-equivalent doses sold in a given area could serve as an indicator for number of animals in an area on heartworm prevention. A few studies have attempted to estimate the percentage of dogs on preventatives through owner surveys[29], but it is difficult to generalize nationally from geographically localized small-scale surveys. Such data, therefore, are not necessarily a good representation of any certain clinic’s patient demographics. Other sources of potential heartworm preventative use would involve pharmaceutical companies’ sales data.
Social economic status
In a study conducted of patients presented at a Pennsylvania teaching hospital, patient age, owner household income, and being neutered were factors that were associated with an increased likelihood of heartworm preventative compliance[29]. At the highest income levels in the study, compliance began to drop, sometimes considerably, thereby adding a level of caution when using a linear association with socioeconomic status. In the case of the dogs shipped out of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, intact dogs were 1.6 times more likely to have dirofilariasis than neutered dogs[30].
A relationship between pet relinquishment and foreclosures has been established in California[44]. Areas with concentrated foreclosures had greater concentrations of pet relinquishments. Furthermore, it was reported that residents in low-valued homes are more likely to have un-neutered dogs and were more likely to relinquish these animals, and that neuter status and relinquishment shifted as home values increased[44]. Taken with the lower compliance by owners of reported unneutered dogs[29], these factors may be valuable in the model development.
Alternative factors
In addition to the factors discussed above, a list of covariates, secondary in importance to the ones above, were discussed. These secondary covariates include:
Latitude
While the effect of latitude may depend on the location, latitude could serve as a surrogate for general weather, which influences the presence and abundance of mosquito species[45]. However, because the more nuanced and finer resolution meteorological data are available for use as potential factors, latitude may be duplicative to these other factors.
Geographic mobility or migration behavior of humans (clients) within a given area
As pet owners with unprotected pets move between high and low transmission regions, they may be facilitating heartworm spread to new areas (see host factors above). Bringing infectious or susceptible dogs into new areas may influence the spread and inter-annual incidence of heartworm. Geographic mobility data may be important in identifying heartworm outbreaks. This said, the factor may be captured in demographic data already described above, and is hence considered secondary.
Pollen count
In regions where precipitation is low (the Southwest for example) or where irrigation is common, pollen may serve as a surrogate for vector habitat. Pollen counts may be a better measure in regions where precipitation underestimates the availability of immature habitat. However, with the inclusion of crop types, forestation coverage, and meteorological data, pollen counts seem less important.
Factors with insufficient data for inclusion
A number of factors considered important seemed unlikely to be sufficiently quantified for use in modeling. These factors can be divided into two groups: those important to vector and parasite development and those important to host susceptibility. Some of the vector and parasite factors excluded were: vector infection rates, detailed reservoir infection rates, vector abundance and flight range, vector competence (vector efficiency index), vector survival, temperature-dependent development rates of vectors (under natural fluctuating temperature regimes), and variations in heartworm development thresholds. These factors are important for accurate forecasting models because they dictate the rates at which vectors emerge in the population and become infectious. However, due to lack of data availability, we excluded them from the model factors list.
The number of susceptible hosts in a population is also important. Direct measures of susceptible populations are not available. Potential surrogates for these data are presented above.