Ecology and epidemiology of vector-borne disease dynamics across Australia, Ross River virus

Mosquito-borne diseases are a major public health problem causing a significant burden on the economies globally. Central to comprehending the dynamics of mosquito-borne diseases and effective management, is a dual understanding of seasonality in host and vector life history traits, yet these interrelationships are poorly understood in most cases. Ross River virus (RRV) is Australia’s most epidemiologically important mosquitoborne disease and presents a unique opportunity to identify mechanisms driving variation in seasonal mosquito-borne disease dynamics across large spatial and temporal scales. In this study, we examine the fundamental ecology and epidemiology of RRV transmission in epidemic centres around Australia and attempt to disentangle the differences in the mechanisms driving dynamics RRV outbreaks and extend our models to assess epidemic dynamics across four major epidemic centres. Our findings provide an in-depth understanding of RRV and its transmission in relation to host, vector, and seasonal dynamics, providing useful fundamental and applied information. Determining the underlying causes of RRV epidemics can aid public health decisionmaking. Our methodologies can further be applied to similar mosquito-borne diseases to understand their complex ecology and epidemiology.