Abstract
The importance of Zika virus (ZIKV) has increased noticeably since the outbreak in the Americas in 2015, when the illness was associated with congenital disorders. Although there is evidence of sexual transmission of the virus, the mosquito Aedes aegypti is believed to be the main vector for transmission to humans. This species of mosquito has not only been found naturally infected with ZIKV, but also has been the subject of study in many vector competence assays that employ different strains of ZIKV around the world. In Argentina, the first case was reported in February 2016 and a total of 278 autochthonous cases have since been confirmed, however, ZIKV virus has not been isolated from any mosquito species yet in Argentina. In order to elucidate if Argentinian Ae. aegypti populations could be a possible vector of ZIKV, we conducted vector competence studies that involved a local strain of ZIKV from Chaco province, and a Venezuelan strain obtained from an imported case. For this purpose, Ae. aegypti adults from the temperate area of Argentina (Buenos Aires province) were fed with infected blood. Body, legs and saliva were harvested and tested by plaque titration on plates of Vero cells for ZIKV at 7, 11 and 14 days post infection (DPI) in order to calculate infection, transmission, and dissemination rates, respectively. Both strains were able to infect mosquitoes at all DPIs, whereas dissemination and transmission were observed at all DPIs for the Argentinian strain but only at 14 DPI for the Venezuelan strain. This study proves the ability of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes from Argentina to become infected with two different strains of ZIKV, both belonging to the Asian lineage, and that the virus can disseminate to the legs and salivary glands.
Highlights
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a single-stranded positive sense RNA virus that was first isolated in 1947 in the Ziika Forest in Uganda from a sentinel Rhesus monkey [1,2]
Zika virus is a flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes, isolated for the first time in the Ziika Forest in Uganda in 1947 from a rhesus macaque monkey
The World Health Organization focused the attention on this virus after the outbreak in the Americas, when the virus was linked to microcephaly and serious neurological diseases, including Guillain-Barresyndrome
Summary
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a single-stranded positive sense RNA virus that was first isolated in 1947 in the Ziika Forest in Uganda from a sentinel Rhesus monkey [1,2]. One year later, this arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) member of the genus Flavivirus was isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes in the same forest, suggesting the mosquito as vector of the virus [2]. A ZIKV outbreak that affected approximately 11% of the population occurred in French Polynesia in 2013. The Guillain-Barresyndrome (GBS) was associated with ZIKV for the first time [5]
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