Utilizing Luminex technology for high-throughput identification of mosquito blood meals

DNA sequencing has been used for the identification of blood meal hosts in mosquitoes, ticks and other blood-feeding arthropods. While sequence comparison is a robust method for identifying hosts, it is both costly and time consuming for large projects. To increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of blood meal identification, species-specific Luminex probes were developed to uniquely identify ten avian hosts that are frequently fed upon by Culex tarsalis and Culex pipiens, the main vectors of West Nile Virus (WNV) in California. The ten host species were chosen based on previous precipitin blood meal identification as well as avian seroprevalence for WNV. The Luminex probes were verified using blood from known avian species, the ten species for which the probes were developed as well as close relatives. In addition, unknown mosquito blood meals were identified with Luminex probes and verified by DNA sequencing.