Abstract
Dengue virus (DENV) has re-emerged in Europe driven by the geographic expansion of the mosquito species Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) and the introduction of the virus by viraemic travellers. In the present study, the vector competence (VC) of Ae.albopictus collected in Catalonia (northeast Spain) was evaluated for two different DENV strains, DENV-1 and DENV-2, the serotypes responsible for all outbreaks of dengue that have occurred in Europe. Mosquitoes were reared under environmental conditions mimicking the mean temperature and humidity recorded in July on the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia. Mosquitoes were fed on an artificial infectious bloodmeal and, at 14 days post-exposure, infection, disseminated infection and transmission rates (IR, DIR, TR) and transmission efficiency (TE) were determined by testing the virus in the body, legs and saliva. The tested Ae.albopictus strain was found to be susceptible to both DENV-1 and DENV-2 and to be able to transmit DENV-1. This is the first time that the VC of Ae.albopictus for DENV has been tested in Europe in this specific context (i.e. mimicking the Mediterranean temperature and humidity recorded in Catalonia in July). This study confirms the potential of Ae.albopictus to start autochthonous DENV transmission cycles in the Mediterranean basin.
Highlights
Dengue virus (DENV) is a vector-borne Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae and is mainly transmitted by Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse)
The cumulative disseminated infection rate (DIR) values were higher for DENV-1 than for DENV-2 at 53% (26/49) and 35% (9/26), respectively (Table 1)
The results of the present study provide evidence that the Ae. albopictus strain tested is susceptible to oral infection with both DENV-1 and DENV-2 at a viral load (5.5 log10 TCID50/mL) within the range of viraemia (3–8 log10 TCID50/mL) observed in humans (Salazar et al, 2007)
Summary
Dengue virus (DENV) is a vector-borne Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae and is mainly transmitted by Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse). Dengue virus is the most widespread of the arboviruses that affect humans, with more than 390 million cases of infection estimated per year (Bhatt et al, 2013). Infection with any of the DENV serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4) can either be asymptomatic (in 75% of cases) or result in one of the three clinical forms of (in increasing severity) dengue fever, dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome (de la Cruz-Hernández et al, 2013). Imported cases of DENV infection have been reported in several European countries in recent years (Neumayr et al, 2017). In 2012–2013, a large epidemic was reported in the Portuguese island of Madeira, which has been recolonized by Ae. aegypti (Wilder-Smith et al, 2014)
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