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Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden

A crucial, but unresolved question concerning mosquito-borne virus transmission is how these viruses can remain endemic in regions where the transmission is halted for long periods of time, due to mosquito inactivity in, e.g., winter. In northern Europe, Sindbis virus (SINV) (genus alphavirus, Togav...

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Autores principales: Bergman, Alexander, Dahl, Emma, Lundkvist, Åke, Hesson, Jenny C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33327649
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12121441
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author Bergman, Alexander
Dahl, Emma
Lundkvist, Åke
Hesson, Jenny C.
author_facet Bergman, Alexander
Dahl, Emma
Lundkvist, Åke
Hesson, Jenny C.
author_sort Bergman, Alexander
collection PubMed
description A crucial, but unresolved question concerning mosquito-borne virus transmission is how these viruses can remain endemic in regions where the transmission is halted for long periods of time, due to mosquito inactivity in, e.g., winter. In northern Europe, Sindbis virus (SINV) (genus alphavirus, Togaviridae) is transmitted among birds by Culex mosquitoes during the summer, with occasional symptomatic infections occurring in humans. In winter 2018–19, we sampled hibernating Culex spp females in a SINV endemic region in Sweden and assessed them individually for SINV infection status, blood-feeding status, and species. The results showed that 35 out of the 767 collected mosquitoes were infected by SINV, i.e., an infection rate of 4.6%. The vast majority of the collected mosquitoes had not previously blood-fed (98.4%) and were of the species Cx. pipiens (99.5%). This is the first study of SINV overwintering, and it concludes that SINV can be commonly found in the hibernating Cx. pipiens population in an endemic region in Sweden, and that these mosquitoes become infected through other means besides blood-feeding. Further studies on mosquito ecology and viral interactions are needed to elucidate the mechanisms of the persistence of these viruses over winter.
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spelling pubmed-77651112020-12-27 Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden Bergman, Alexander Dahl, Emma Lundkvist, Åke Hesson, Jenny C. Viruses Article A crucial, but unresolved question concerning mosquito-borne virus transmission is how these viruses can remain endemic in regions where the transmission is halted for long periods of time, due to mosquito inactivity in, e.g., winter. In northern Europe, Sindbis virus (SINV) (genus alphavirus, Togaviridae) is transmitted among birds by Culex mosquitoes during the summer, with occasional symptomatic infections occurring in humans. In winter 2018–19, we sampled hibernating Culex spp females in a SINV endemic region in Sweden and assessed them individually for SINV infection status, blood-feeding status, and species. The results showed that 35 out of the 767 collected mosquitoes were infected by SINV, i.e., an infection rate of 4.6%. The vast majority of the collected mosquitoes had not previously blood-fed (98.4%) and were of the species Cx. pipiens (99.5%). This is the first study of SINV overwintering, and it concludes that SINV can be commonly found in the hibernating Cx. pipiens population in an endemic region in Sweden, and that these mosquitoes become infected through other means besides blood-feeding. Further studies on mosquito ecology and viral interactions are needed to elucidate the mechanisms of the persistence of these viruses over winter. MDPI 2020-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7765111/ /pubmed/33327649 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12121441 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bergman, Alexander
Dahl, Emma
Lundkvist, Åke
Hesson, Jenny C.
Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden
title Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden
title_full Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden
title_fullStr Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden
title_short Sindbis Virus Infection in Non-Blood-Fed Hibernating Culex pipiens Mosquitoes in Sweden
title_sort sindbis virus infection in non-blood-fed hibernating culex pipiens mosquitoes in sweden
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33327649
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12121441
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