Evaluation of Simultaneous Transmission of Chikungunya Virus and Dengue Virus Type 2 in Infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

• Published in: Journal of medical entomology Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 447 - 451
• Main Authors: Nuckols, J. T, Huang, Y.-J. S, Higgs, S, Miller, A. L, Pyles, R. B, Spratt, H. M, Horne, K. M, Vanlandingham, D. L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Entomological Society of America 01.05.2015
• Subjects: Aedes - virology; Aedes aegypti; Aedes albopictus; Animals; Chikungunya Fever - transmission; Chikungunya Fever - virology; Chikungunya virus; Chikungunya virus - physiology; Cricetinae; dengue; Dengue - transmission; Dengue - virology; Dengue virus; Dengue Virus - physiology; Female; insect vectors; Insect Vectors - virology; public health; quantitative polymerase chain reaction; reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; viruses; Aedes albopictus; Aedes aegypti; transmission; dengue; chikungunya
• ISSN: 0022-2585; 1938-2928
• DOI: 10.1093/jme/tjv017

The simultaneous transmission of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and dengue viruses (DENV) has been a major public health concern because of their sympatric distribution and shared mosquito vectors. Groups of Aedes aegypti (L.) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) were orally infected with 1.5 × 10⁵ PFU/ml of CHIKV and 3.2 × 10⁶ FFU/ml of DENV-2 simultaneously or separately in inverse orders and evaluated for dissemination and transmission by qRT-PCR. Simultaneous dissemination of both viruses was detected for all groups in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus while cotransmission of CHIKV and DENV-2 only occurred at low rates after sequential but not simultaneous infection.