Zika found in the saliva of common (Culex) mosquito in Brazil

niman · March 3, 2016

Zika virus found in the saliva of common (Culex) mosquito

http://www.radioformula.com.mx/notas.asp?Idn=574953&idFC=2016

Edited March 3, 2016 by niman

niman · March 3, 2016

March 2, 2016

Brazilian researchers analyzed the results indicating the presence of the Zika virus in the mosquito or common mosquito, which could mean that any species could spread the disease.
A group of researchers in Brazil found Zika virus in the salivary glands of the mosquito or mosquito common, reported in the news Paola Rojas. This discovery is an indication that other species could spread the disease. It is clear that just about laboratory tests that should be valued. With information from Jaime Nuñez.

niman · March 3, 2016

Zika virus are the common mosquito in Brazil

Brazilian public laboratory researchers Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) made the discovery.

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Zika Scientists are investigating the possibility of transmitting viruses muriçoca

Research has identified the presence of virus in salivary gland specimens Culex quinquefasciatus

Published on 02/03/2016 at 20h35

Hypothesis that the mosquito Aedes aegypti is not the only virus zika vector is stronger than ever / Bobby Fabisak / JC Picture

Hypothesis that the mosquito Aedes aegypti is not the only virus zika vector is stronger than ever

Bobby Fabisak / JC Picture

cinthya Milk

It is stronger the hypothesis that the mosquito Aedes aegypti is not the only vector zika virus, which already can be spread in about 40 countries. Preliminary results of a study conducted by Fiocruz Pernambuco suggest that Culex quinquefasciatus (popularly known as muriçoca), which lays its eggs in breeding polluted, it is probably a potential zika vector. The study, led by biologist Constancia Ayres Lopes, could detect the presence of zika in high viral load in the salivary gland of Culex after holding three infections in the laboratory at about 200 mosquitoes.

http://jconline.ne10.uol.com.br/canal/cidades/geral/noticia/2016/03/02/zika-cientistas-investigam-possibilidade-de-muricoca-transmitir-virus-224021.php

niman · March 3, 2016

Brazilian experts investigate if 'common mosquito' is transmitting zika virus

Brazil would face an even greater struggle against zika If the common "culex" mosquito is passing on the virus

A common 'culex' mosquito Photo: Alamy

By Priscilla Moraes, Rio de Janeiro

5:13PM GMT 27 Jan 2016

Brazil could be facing a greater fight against the zika virus than previously feared as researchers investigate whether the common mosquito is transmitting the disease.

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The Aedes aegypti species of mosquito was thought to be solely responsible for spreading the virus. But scientists are now studying whether the “culex” mosquito – the variety most commonly found in Brazil - could also be passing on the infection.

"This may be the reason for the virus replicating faster,” said Constancia Ayres, the research coordinator of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. “The interaction of the mosquito with the virus may explain the epidemiological profile of disease transmission.”

The Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease suspected of causing serious birth defects, is expected to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization said Local workers disinfect the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Photo: EPA/MARECELO SAYAO

The study is expected to last three weeks and aims to understand precisely how quickly the epidemic is spreading. Mrs Ayres pointed out that the culex mosquito “transmits other viruses close to zika” and asked: “What's to say that it could not transmit Zika?"

The disease caused by the zika virus is linked to a large number of cases of cranial malformations in babies, especially in north-eastern Brazil, known as microcephaly.

A government report revealed more than 4,000 suspected cases where babies have been born with a brain deformity since last year.

President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil promised that her government would wage war against the mosquitos responsible for spreading the virus.

The Zika virus is thought to cause microcephaly, a condition that leads to exceptionally small infant head size

"The best vaccine against the zika virus is every one of us fighting: government and society,” she said. “The more standing water, the more the mosquito breeds. So we cannot let them be born. It will be a fight house-to-house and the government will make a serious commitment to that.”

In Brazil, the authorities are expected to announce more help for low-income families with babies born with malformations. They will receive a minimum salary per month to help provide necessary care to children with microcephaly.

• Zika virus outbreak spreads across South and Central America, in pictures

The government plans to distribute insect repellent to all pregnant women who already receive the state’s “Bolsa Familia” family allowance.

The zika virus has already spread elsewhere in South America. Switzerland and Denmark have become the latest European countries to report infections among their citizens returning from the continent.

One Swiss national was infected in Colombia; another caught the virus as far away from Brazil as Haiti. Only pregnant women generally require hospital treatment for the disease, which poses the greatest threat to unborn children.

So far, five cases have been confirmed in Britain, all among people who had travelled in South America. Five people have also been recorded with the virus in Portugal, which has the greatest number of European travellers to Brazil.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation on Tuesday by scientists from the US Centre for Disease Control. The White House said that Mr Obama “emphasised the need to accelerate research efforts to make available better diagnostic tests, to develop vaccines and therapeutics, and to ensure that all Americans have information about the zika virus”.

There is no vaccine or specific cure for zika, which has symptoms similar to influenza and often causes a rash.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/12125647/Brazilian-experts-investigate-if-common-mosquito-is-transmitting-zika-virus.html

niman · March 3, 2016

02/03/2016 17h36 - Updated 03/02/2016 17h36

Fiocruz research shows virus zika in salivary gland stilt

Still can not confirm that the common mosquito transmits the disease. The
end result of the research will be known within eight months.

G1 PE

Researcher Constance Ayres studying transmission zika by stilt (Photo: Bruno Marinho / G1)

The ease of spread of zika virus in Culex mosquitoes infected in the laboratory was confirmed on Wednesday (2) by the researcher Constance Ayres, of vector design of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation institution ( Fiocruz ) in Pernambuco . "This means that, in the laboratory, the virus managed to escape some barriers in the mosquito and reached the salivary gland," the researcher explained. The Culex is the common mosquito, popularly known as muriçoca or stilt.

During the second day of the workshop A, B, C, D, E Zika virus, held in Recife , the biologist presented the preliminary results of research showing the spread of the virus to the mosquito 'ssalivary gland, where happen to transmission disease to humans. After performing three infections in 200 Culex mosquitoes (the first two in December last year and the third in February), research shows the vector competence of mosquito in the laboratory.

ZIKA

Virus is a global concern

The survey results are still partial, it is still not possible to say whether the mosquito is capable of transmitting the virus to zika people. "To complete this, lack identify in the field the species of mosquito infected with the virus zika," says the biologist. What researchers know is that we need to further study and see if common mosquitoes found in areas where the virus circulates, are contaminated. According to Constance Ayres, the next step of the research is to analyze the field of material being collected."In the houses and where happen zika case records are being collected mosquitoes of two species (Aedes aegypti and Culex). We bring this material to the laboratory and do molecular tests to detect the virus in these species. A large number of samples having done, we can get an idea if the Aedes is the unique vector, if there are other vectors and the importance of each in the role of transmission, "he says.

It will take 6-8 months for the search come to a conclusion. "It will probably take a while to have the end result. The ideal is to analyze the largest possible number of mosquitoes around 10 thousand, to get an idea of the dispersion, compare different neighborhoods and see if it coincides with the cases of microcephaly zika and disease, "he added.

http://g1.globo.com/pernambuco/noticia/2016/03/pesquisa-da-fiocruz-mostra-virus-da-zika-em-glandula-salivar-do-pernilongo.html

niman · March 3, 2016

Are Culex Mosquitoes Potential Vectors of the Zika Virus?

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Published on: March 2, 2016

Aedes aegypti seeking blood. (Photograph by James Gathany, Center for Disease Control Public Health Image Library.)

Scientists throughout the world targeted the Zika virus, transmitted by the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, at a major symposium today in Recife, Brazil, epicenter of the Zika virus outbreak.

Native Brazilian Walter Leal, chemical ecologist and professor in the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, is there.

So is the mosquito.

At the symposium today, Constancia Ayres, research coordinator of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Centro de Pesquisa Aggeu Magalhaes/FIOCRUZ, considered one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific research institutes in South America), reported that the common southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, may be a potential vector of the Zika virus.

Studies in the Ayres lab confirmed that Culex quinquefasciatus infected with Zika (isolated from local patients) showed high transmission rate (as determined by virus replication in the salivary glands).

Culex quinquefasciatus drawing blood. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Culex quinquefasciatus filled with blood. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

That raises all kinds of questions and concerns. "This is very important for us--California and both nations--because we haveCulex mosquitoes (vectors of West Nile virus), and so does Brazil," said Leal, whose UC Davis lab collaborates with the Ayres lab.

Of course, these studies were done in the lab, not the field, and this is the beginning of the research.

We asked medical entomologist William Reisen, editor of the Journal of Medical Entomology, and professor emeritus, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, about this.

"In California less than 3 percent of the Culex including Cx. quinquefasciatus have been found to feed on humans, even in cities like Los Angeles, where humans are the most numerous host," Reisen said in an email. "Therefore, even if they are susceptible to infection, the probability of a female feeding on humans to acquire and then refeed on humans to transmit would be 0.03 x 0.03 = 0.0009 or a rare event indeed. That said, there are areas of the world where quinquefasciatus feeds predominantly on humans in domestic settings. (See his research paper, Host Selection Patterns of Some Pakistan Mosquitoes (U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health).

In his research paper on Pakistan mosquitoes, Reisen mentions Culex pipiens fatigans, now known as Culex quinquefasciatus. Its feeding patterns "varied opportunistically with host availability," he wrote in the abstract. Resting in cattle sheds during the winter, it "fed on birds and bovids, changing to man and bovids during the spring and then to man and birds during summer."

Medical entomologist Thomas Scott, distinguished professor of entomology (now emeritus) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is a global authority on Aedes aegypti, which transmits dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and the Zika viruses.

"Vector competence studies in the lab is valuable information, but before we come to the conclusion that Culex quinquefasciatus is an important contributor to transmission of Zika virus, the lab results would need to be confirmed," Scott told us. "Other laboratories and appropriate field studies would need to be carried out in areas where Zika virus is being transmitted to confirm that this species is naturally infected and is regularly biting people. Although it is a potentially important discovery that would change they way we think about Zika virus transmission, it would be wise to carefully explore all of the details necessary to incriminate a mosquito vector before coming to a strong conclusion."

An article by Priscilla Moraes of Rio de Janeiro in the Jan. 27, 2016 edition of the Telegraph News, London, touched on whether Culex can transmit the Zika virus.

"Brazil could be facing a greater fight against the zika virus than previously feared as researchers investigate whether the common mosquito is transmitting the disease," Moraes wrote in the article, headlined "Brazilian Experts Investigate if 'Common Mosquito' is Transmitting Zika Virus."

"The Aedes aegypti species of mosquito was thought to be solely responsible for spreading the virus," Moraes pointed out. "But scientists are now studying whether the Culex mosquito--the variety (species) most commonly found in Brazil--could also be passing on the infection."

Constancia Ayres was quoted as saying: "This may be the reason for the virus replicating faster. The interaction of the mosquito with the virus may explain the epidemiological profile of disease transmission.”

Meanwhile, the headlines continue as research proceeds.

The Outbreak News Today related that researchers in the Ayres lab "are now investigating the possibility that other, non-Aedes mosquito species, might carry and spread Zika and Chikungunya."

"The concern is that the Culex mosquito--which is 20 times more prevalent than the Aedes variety in Brazil-- might also play some role in the rapid spread of these viruses," Outbreak News Todaynoted. "Researchers hope to have some answers in a few weeks,"

Valor.com.br is hot on the story as well. Reporter Marina Hawk emphasized that the work was done in the lab, but field collection is underway.

UC Davis chemical ecologist and mosquito researcher Walter Leal (front), is attending the Zika conference in Recife, Brazil. In this image, taken March 2, he confers with mosquito researchers Constancia Ayres (far right, in black) and Rosângela Barbosa (center) of the Ayres lab. The Leal lab collaborates with the Ayres lab.

Tags: Aedes aegypti (9), Constancia Ayres (0), culex (1), Rosângela Barbosa(0), UC Davis (75), Walter Leal (36), zika virus (0)

Comments: 0

http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=20369

niman · March 3, 2016

Research indicates other mosquitoes may be able to carry Zika

Research by scientists in Brazil indicates that a mosquito more common than the one primarily known to transmit Zika infections may possibly be able to carry the virus, a development that could further complicate efforts to limit its spread.

Posted 04 Mar 2016 02:30

PHOTOS

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen inside Oxitec laboratory in Campinas, Brazil, February 2, 2016. Picture taken February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

RIO DE JANEIRO: Research by scientists in Brazil indicates that a mosquito more common than the one primarily known to transmit Zika infections may possibly be able to carry the virus, a development that could further complicate efforts to limit its spread.

The mosquito species Aedes aegypti has been identified as the primary transmitter of Zika infections, which have been linked to thousands of birth defects as the virus spreads rapidly in Brazil and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But the scientists in Brazil announced on Wednesday that they were able to infect another species, Culex quinquefasciatus, with the virus in a laboratory, raising concerns that Zika could be carried by a species more prevalent than Aedes aegypti. They said much more research is needed to learn whether the Culex mosquitoes can transmit Zika infections.

In Brazil, Culex quinquefasciatus is 20 times more common than Aedes aegypti, the researchers said.

The research, conducted by scientists at the government-funded Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in the northeastern city of Recife, is part of an ongoing trial in which researchers injected 200 of the Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes with rabbit blood infected by Zika.

The virus, they said, circulated through the mosquitoes' bodies and into their salivary glands, meaning they might be able to transmit a Zika infection by biting a person.

"We saw an ease of infection and an ease of dissemination of the virus to the salivary glands," Constancia Ayres, the lead scientist in the study, told Globo, Brazil's leading television network.

The research has yet to be published in a scientific journal or reviewed by scientific peers elsewhere.

The foundation said more work was needed to determine whether Culex mosquitoes in the wild already are carrying the virus as well as whether they can transmit Zika infections.

Foundation spokeswoman Fabiola Tavares on Thursday said the researchers, who will begin capturing Culex mosquitoes in areas near Recife where the virus is known to be circulating, will now proceed toward answering those questions. The additional research could take up to eight months, Tavares added.

If a mosquito besides Aedes aegypti were found to transmit Zika infections, it could make it more difficult to contain the current Zika outbreak that the World Health Organization last month declared a global public health emergency.

Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.

Brazil said it has confirmed more than 640 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating more than 4,200 additional suspected cases of microcephaly.

Traces of Zika virus have been found in the bodily fluids and tissue of mothers and babies affected by microcephaly.

Culex quinquefasciatus also exists in more temperate climes, such as the southern United States, where it is known to carry the West Nile virus, and can survive winters. Unlike Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus could keep a virus in circulation during cold months.

Though the Culex mosquitoes prefer to feed on the blood of birds, they also commonly bite humans, especially in rural areas. That means that targeted pesticide use and other mosquito control efforts for that species, which rests in trees and other high areas, would need to be different from those for Aedes aegypti, which rests in low spots, often indoors.

"You can't spray up high the way you can around buildings," said Grayson Brown, director of the University of Kentucky's public health entomology laboratory who was not involved in the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation research.

If Culex mosquitoes were indeed proven to transmit Zika, Brown said, "it would really complicate the public health issue."

(Reporting by Paulo Prada; Editing by Will Dunham)

- Reuters

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/health/research-indicates-other/2571240.html

niman · March 4, 2016

A Mosquito Common In U.S. May Transmit Zika, Study Finds

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COMMENTS

MARCH 4, 2016

/

by KATIE WORTH Tow Journalism Fellow, FRONTLINE/Columbia Journalism School Fellowships

A culex mosquito pictured at the Arizona Department of Health Services laboratory in 2004. (Jeff Topping/Getty Images)

One of the most common mosquitos in the United States may have the capacity to carry the Zika virus, according to preliminary research in Brazil.

The findings, which have yet to be peer reviewed or confirmed outside of a lab, found that mosquitos from the family of mosquitos known as Culex may not only be infected with Zika, but could also reproduce the virus in their salivary glands — a key step for passing the virus to humans.

If further research confirms the early results detected in 12 Culex mosquitos, many countries could be forced to radically rethink their mosquito control campaigns. In Brazil, those efforts have focused almost exclusively on eradicating a different kind of mosquito — the Aedis aegypti.

The study was detailed by Constancia Ayres, a faculty member at the federal research institute Fiocruz Pernambuco in Recife, at a conference of scientists on Wednesday, and was greeted with both intrigue and caution.

Dr. Idê Gurgel, a researcher at the institute, called the discovery “bombastic news” that could “change everything.”

Sérgio Bessa Luz, director of the federal Fiocruz Amazônia research center in Manaus, cautioned that restraint was in order: “This is preliminary data,” he said. Even if the virus is in the saliva, “it’s not definitive” that it can transfer Zika effectively to humans, he said. “We can’t yet conclude [Culex is] a vector.”

Scientists are still working to establish the most fundamental facts about the Zika virus. Although it has been known to researchers since 1947, the virus was considered a rare, obscure and non-threatening disease until last year, when hundreds of thousands of people in Brazil became infected. The virus usually has either no symptoms or mild ones — a rash, a low fever, swollen joints — but evidence has mounted that it can, in rare cases, attack the nervous system and cause debilitating problems, including a birth defect known as microcephaly in babies.

But little research has focused on how Zika is transmitted. Ayres said a literature review only unearthed four studies from the last 70 years that investigated the disease’s potential vectors: They all focused on Aedes mosquitos. None considered the Culex species.

Until now, the house-loving Aedes aegypti mosquito and its forest-dwelling cousin, Aedes albopictus, have been eyed as the likely culprits spreading the disease from Africa across Asia to the Americas. Those species are also believed to be the primary vectors for dengue and chikungunya, two other mosquito-borne viruses that have hounded Brazil.

To Ayres, it seemed obvious to ask whether the Culex mosquito may also be carrying the disease: Culex quinquefasciatus, known in the U.S. as the southern common house mosquito, is even more common than Aedes aegypti in Brazil’s urban areas, she said. Both it and its close cousin, the Culex pipiens, are widespread throughout the U.S. and both can spread other diseases, such as West Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis.

To explore their competence as a vector, Ayres fed 200 mosquitos — half Culex and half Aedes aegypti — with Zika-infected blood. She tested 12 of them and found that each had been infected with the disease after a week. She also tested the viral load in their salivary glands — an indication that the disease is being reproduced there and could transmit it through bites — and found the Culex mosquitos were reproducing it at an especially high level.

Ayres will spend the next two weeks infecting and studying more mosquitos to confirm the results, she said.

The next step will be to learn whether Culex are being infected with Zika in the wild. Ayres has enlisted mosquito abatement teams across two Brazilian states to send her all the mosquitos they collect during their home inspections. She has already begun receiving some, she said, and will receive thousands more in the coming months. Eventually her team will test them for Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Only then, she said, will she feel confident enough to postulate whether Culex mosquitos are indeed a major vector of Zika.

The two mosquitos are radically different from each other: The Aedes feeds during the day; the Culex at dawn and dusk. Aedis likes fresh water; Culex likes dirty water. Aedes specializes in feeding on people; Culex prefers birds.

Much attention has focused on Aedes aegypti because it is auniquely qualified vector for disease: A female can bite many people, which allows her to carry a disease from one person to the next. It likes urban and domestic environments, which means it is in close proximity to people. And the species specializes in human blood, which means it wastes no time biting other animals. The mosquitos’ territory extendsthroughout the planet’s tropical regions and is found in every city in Brazil.

Culex mosquitos have an even broader territory than Aedes aegypti, and are common across Europe and the U.S. But they carry disease less efficiently than Aedes, because they tend to bite fewer humans in a row, limiting how many people they infect.

Told by email about Ayres’ findings, Scott Weaver, scientific director of the Galveston National Laboratory, responded that he was “not completely surprised by these results.” But just because a mosquito can carry a disease does not decide whether it is “an important vector,” he said. “The main remaining question regarding Culex is how often they feed consecutively on humans, which is likely far less than (Aedes) aegypti,” he said.

Ayres said that if Culex mosquitos prove to be a major vector, it would require an overhaul of mosquito control strategies: “The strategies that we are using to control Aedes aegypti are useless for Culex because they are completely different species,” she said. For instance, public education campaigns have urged people to wear repellent during the day — but if Culex is a vector, repellent would be sensible at night as well. Furthermore, Brazil would have to confront its major wastewater problems: In Recife, only about a third of homes are connected to the sewage system. Waste water from the rest drains into ditches, canals, or rivers, making an abundance of breeding grounds for Culex.

The U.S. would also have to worry more about Zika if Culex proves to be a vector, said U.C. Davis professor Walter Leal, a partner in Ayres’s research. Aedes aegypti mosquitos are mostly confined to warmer states, such as Florida, Texas and parts of California, whereas Culex are found everywhere.

“This is very bad luck for us in the U.S. if it proves correct,” said Leal. “In America we think, OK, this virus is coming, people are getting sick, but it’s OK because we don’t have so much Aedes aegypti. But we have a lot of Culex.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-mosquito-common-in-u-s-may-transmit-zika-study-finds/

Zika found in the saliva of common (Culex) mosquito in Brazil

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Zika virus are the common mosquito in Brazil

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Zika Scientists are investigating the possibility of transmitting viruses muriçoca

Hypothesis that the mosquito Aedes aegypti is not the only virus zika vector is stronger than ever

Bobby Fabisak / JC Picture

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Brazilian experts investigate if 'common mosquito' is transmitting zika virus

Brazil would face an even greater struggle against zika If the common "culex" mosquito is passing on the virus

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Fiocruz research shows virus zika in salivary gland stilt

Still can not confirm that the common mosquito transmits the disease. The end result of the research will be known within eight months.

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Research indicates other mosquitoes may be able to carry Zika

Research by scientists in Brazil indicates that a mosquito more common than the one primarily known to transmit Zika infections may possibly be able to carry the virus, a development that could further complicate efforts to limit its spread.

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A Mosquito Common In U.S. May Transmit Zika, Study Finds

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Still can not confirm that the common mosquito transmits the disease. The
end result of the research will be known within eight months.