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Vector Competence of Culex quinquefasciatus from Brazil for West Nile Virus

2023; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 8; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/tropicalmed8040217

2414-6366

Lúcia Aline Moura Reis, Eliana Vieira Pinto da Silva, Daniel Damous Dias, Maria Nazaré Oliveira Freitas, Rossela Damasceno Caldeira, Pedro Arthur da Silva Araújo, Fábio Silva da Silva, José Wilson Rosa, Roberto Carlos Feitosa Brandão, Bruna Laís Sena do Nascimento, Livia Carício Martins, Joaquim Pinto Nunes Neto,

Vector-borne infectious diseases

West Nile virus is characterized as a neurotropic pathogen, which can cause West Nile fever and is transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Culex. In 2018, the Instituto Evandro Chagas performed the first isolation of a WNV strain in Brazil from a horse brain sample. The present study aimed to evaluate the susceptibility of orally infected Cx. quinquefasciatus from the Amazon region of Brazil to become infected and transmit the WNV strain isolated in 2018. Oral infection was performed with blood meal artificially infected with WNV, followed by analysis of infection, dissemination, and transmission rates, as well as viral titers of body, head, and saliva samples. At the 21st dpi, the infection rate was 100%, the dissemination rate was 80%, and the transmission rate was 77%. These results indicate that Cx. quinquefasciatus is susceptible to oral infection by the Brazilian strain of WNV and may act as a possible vector of the virus since it was detected in saliva from the 21st dpi.