Importance of Vertical and Horizontal Transmission of West Nile Virus by Culex pipiens in the Northeastern United States

West Nile virus (WNV) has become established in the northeastern United States, where mosquitoes are inactive during winter. There have been no documented studies to explain how this virus survives winter and reinitiates infection in spring. We report that WNV was vertically transmitted to 2 F1 fema...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 2006-12, Vol.194 (11), p.1577-1579
Main Authors: Anderson, John F., Main, Andy J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cercopithecus aethiops
Connecticut
Cricetinae
Culex - virology
Culex pipiens
Diapause
Female
Female animals
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hamsters
Horizontal transmission
Infections
Infectious diseases
Insect Vectors - virology
Medical sciences
Microbiology
Miscellaneous
Mosquitos
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
RNA, Viral - analysis
RNA, Viral - genetics
Seasons
Vero Cells
Vertical disease transmission
Virology
Virus Cultivation
Viruses
West Nile Fever - transmission
West Nile virus
West Nile virus - genetics
West Nile virus - isolation & purification
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Summary:West Nile virus (WNV) has become established in the northeastern United States, where mosquitoes are inactive during winter. There have been no documented studies to explain how this virus survives winter and reinitiates infection in spring. We report that WNV was vertically transmitted to 2 F1 female Culex pipiens from a naturally infected female collected in Stratford, Connecticut. One vertically infected F1 female, which was 168 days old, fed on a hamster that died 8 days later of West Nile disease. This suggests that WNV survives winter in unfed, vertically infected C. pipiens with amplification initiated in spring by horizontal transmission
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1086/508754