Abstract
Mosquitoes are vectors of viruses affecting animal and human health. In Iran, the prevalence of mosquito-borne viruses remains poorly investigated. Once infected, mosquito females remain infected for all their life making virus detections possible at early steps before infections are reported in vertebrate hosts. In this study, we used a recently developed high-throughput chip based on the BioMark Dynamic arrays system capable of detecting 37 arboviruses in a single experiment. A total of 1,212 mosquitoes collected in Mazandaran, North-Khorasan, and Fars provinces of Iran were analyzed. Eighteen species were identified, belonging to five genera; the most prevalent species were Anopheles maculipennis s.l. (42.41%), Culex pipiens (19.39%), An. superpictus (11.72%), and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus (10.64%). We detected chikungunya virus (CHIKV) of the Asian genotype in six mosquito pools collected in North Khorasan and Mazandaran provinces. To our knowledge, this is the first report of mosquitoes infected with CHIKV in Iran. Our high-throughput screening method can be proposed as a novel epidemiological surveillance tool to identify circulating arboviruses and to support preparedness to an epidemic in animals and humans.
Highlights
Up to date, 64 mosquito species are recorded in Iran [1, 2] and several cryptic species have been identified using molecular tools [3, 4]
We used a recently developed highthroughput chip based on the BioMark Dynamic arrays system, capable of screening various arboviruses in a single experiment
By examining 1,212 mosquitoes collected in Iran, we provide evidence that chikungunya virus is circulating in Iran
Summary
64 mosquito species are recorded in Iran [1, 2] and several cryptic species have been identified using molecular tools [3, 4]. WNV is the most prevalent Culex-transmitted virus frequently reported in Iran [9, 10]. In 2012 and 2013, found that three patients developing encephalitis were positive for WNV by RT-qPCR assay [14] and detected serologically positive sera in 1.3% of humans and 2.8% of equines [15]. WNV was detected in mosquitoes: Aedes caspius in the Northwest [16], and Culex pipiens in the North [17] and the South [8]. The most critical mosquito-borne virus in the world is DENV mainly transmitted between humans by Aedes mosquitoes [18]. Our study aims at identifying arboviruses belonging to the Flaviviridae, Togaviridae and Bunyaviridae families in mosquitoes collected in Iran using this newly developed tool
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