Co-circulation of Flanders Virus and West Nile Virus in Culex Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from Chicago, Illinois

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Karen C. Poh, Texas A&M University; Estelle Martin, Texas A&M University; Edward D. Walker, Michigan State University; Uriel Kitron, Emory University; Marilyn O. Ruiz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Tony L. Goldberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine; Gabriel L. Hamer, Texas A&M University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-06-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy B - Oxford Open Option D
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjy051
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Medical Entomology
• ISSN: 0022-2585
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 1062
• End Page: 1066
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health Ecology of Infectious Disease program under Award No. 084040 and the Texas AgriLife Research/Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory Seed Grant Program.
• Keywords: co-infection; Flanders virus; West Nile virus
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Pathology; Biology, Microbiology

Abstract

West Nile virus (WNV) and Flanders virus (FLAV) co-occur in regions of North America. Because both viruses are maintained in a transmission cycle involving Culex mosquitoes and birds, screening mosquitoes for FLAV has been suggested as an enhancement to WNV surveillance and epidemic prediction. Using samples collected in 2010 and 2012 in Chicago, IL, USA, we demonstrate the presence of FLAV in four out of 287 (1.4%) Culex pools. We estimated minimum infection rates for WNV and FLAV to be 5.66 and 1.22 in 2010 and 8.74 and 0.61 in 2012, respectively. FLAV occurred 1 and 3 wk prior to the peak of WNV transmission in 2010 and 2012, respectively. FLAV sequences from Chicago were genetically diverse and phylogenetically representative of lineage A viruses from across the United States.