Details - Public Health Image Library(PHIL)

ID#:

6990

Caption:

This 1976 photograph depicted a densely vegetated New Jersey salt marsh, which was divided into two regions, a “high marsh”, and a “low marsh”. The high marsh was covered by a dense foliage comprised primarily of green, velvety, Spartina patens marsh grass, and was the marsh region that fostered the breeding of a population of Aedes sollicitans mosquitoes. The low marsh region, on which grew the brown vegetation composed primarily of Spartina alterniflora, fostered no mosquito breeding. A. sollicitans mosquitoes are known to transmit Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus, occurring in focal locations along the eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast, and some inland Midwestern locations of the U.S., while small outbreaks of human disease have occurred in the United States, equine epizootics can be a common occurrence during the summer and fall.