Abstract
We performed an arboviral survey in mosquitoes from four endemic Ecuadorian cities (Hua-quillas, Machala, Portovelo and Zaruma) during the epidemic period 2016–2018. Collections were performed during the pre-rainy season (2016), peak transmission season (2017) and post-rainy season (2018). Ae. aegypti mosquitoes were pooled by date, location and sex. Pools were screened by RT-PCR for the presence of ZIKV RNA, and infection rates (IRs) per 1,000 specimens were calculated. A total of 2,592 pools (comprising 6,197 mos-quitoes) were screened. Our results reveal high IRs in all cities and periods sampled. Overall IRs among female mosquitoes were highest in Machala (89.2), followed by Portovelo (66.4), Zaruma (47.4) and Huaquillas (41.9). Among male mosquitoes, overall IRs were highest in Machala (35.6), followed by Portovelo (33.1), Huaquillas (31.9) and Zaruma (27.9), suggest-ing that alternative transmission routes (vertical/venereal) can play important roles for ZIKV maintenance in the vector population of these areas. Additionally, we propose that the stabi-lization of ZIKV vertical transmission in the vector population could help explain the presence of high IRs in field-caught mosquitoes during inter-epidemic periods.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0011908 |
| Journal | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 López-Rosero et al.
Funding
RS, AMSI, SJR, MN received funding from the National Science Foundation Zika Rapid (DEB-161145). ALR, RS, AMSI, SJR, EM, FH, MN received funding from the National Science Foundation Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases grant (DEB-52 1518681). EM received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (DEB-2011147, with the Fogarty International Center), the National Institutes of Health (R35GM133439), and the Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment and Center for Innovation in Global Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Naveed Heydari for his support with sample collection.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Science Foundation Zika Rapid | DEB-161145 |
| SJR | |
| Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment and Center for Innovation in Global Health | |
| National Science Foundation | DEB-2011147, DEB-52 1518681 |
| National Institutes of Health | R35GM133439 |
| Fogarty International Center | |
| American Sports Medicine Institute |
