Land and climate suitability for West Nile virus in Atlantic archipelagos guided by historical data from Europe.

ABSTRACT: West Nile (WNV) is a zoonotic mosquito-borne virus with an expanding geographical and epidemic activity worldwide. Computational studies have contributed to the understanding of factors driving WNV occurrence, particularly in North America and Europe. Archipelagos have largely been overlooked, despite the risk to unique local avian species and human populations. In this study, we apply an ecological niche approach, trained on WNV occurrence and (a)biotic factors from European countries to project ecological suitability for WNV occurrence across several Atlantic archipelagos. The approach gives weight to the temporal dimension, generating novel insights on seasonality both for Europe and the archipelagos. For European countries, modelling results align with previous findings on spatial hots

SUBMITTER: Geraldes MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12855260 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature