Abstract
We report a study on vector competence of an Italian population of Aedes albopictus for Zika virus (ZIKV). Ae. albopictus was susceptible to ZIKV infection (infection rate: 10%), and the virus could disseminate and was secreted in the mosquito's saliva (dissemination rate: 29%; transmission rate: 29%) after an extrinsic incubation period of 11 days. The observed vector competence was lower than that of an Ae. aegypti colony tested in parallel.
Highlights
Disseminated infection was observed in Ae. aegypti starting from 3 dpi, with a mean viral titre of 2.74 ± 0.06 log10 plaque-forming units (PFU)/mL (DR 50%), while in Ae. albopictus, the presence of the virus in legs and wings was detected from 11 dpi, with a lower viral titre (1.62 log10 PFU/mL) and an equal value of dissemination rate (DR) (50%) (Figures 1B and 2B)
Little is known on Zika virus (ZIKV) despite its significant epidemic potential [12]
Our study shows that the Italian Ae. albopictus population is susceptible to ZIKV, allowing viral replication and dissemination in the salivary glands
Summary
Aedes albopictus as the number of mosquitoes with ZIKV-positive saliva among the number of specimens with ZIKV-positive bodies [7]. The potential vector competence was expressed as population transmission rate (PTR), calculated as the number of specimens with ZIKV-positive saliva with respect to the total number of fed mosquitoes [9,11]. Mean viral titres and IR, DR, and TR values are shown in Figures 1 and 2. All of the Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus bodies analysed immediately after the infectious blood meal (day 0) showed positive results, with mean viral titres of 3.85 ± 0.44 log PFU/mL and 3.57 ± 0.28 log PFU/ mL, respectively, confirming the ingestion of infectious viral particles. The viral titres detected in the www.eurosurveillance.org
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