Autor(es): Garza-Hernandez, Javier A.; Rodriguez-Perez, Mario A.; Salazar, Ma Isabel; Russell, Tanya L.; Adeleke, Monsuru A.; de Luna-Santillana, Erik de J.; Reyes-Villanueva, Filiberto

Resumo: Dengue is a worldwide public health problem. There is not an effective vaccine yet; the chemical struggle against its transmitter, the mosquito Aedes aegypti, is onerous and erratic, and the community participation to eliminate vector breeding sites is unconfident. Here, we examined mosquitoes fed on human blood mixed with the Dengue virus, by exposure to the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, to test whether the fungus halts the viral dissemination from midgut to head in co-infected (CI) insects. We found an overall viral infection rate in CI mosquitoes of 76% but infected or not, most (78%) died before or at day six post-infection; only six (12%) out of 50, survivors had virus in head and were potentially infectious at day seven post-infection. A higher infection (84%) was observed in single-virus infected mosquitoes, but they suffered only 6% mortality after 6 days and 32 (64%) survivors tested positive for virus in head after 7 days. Survival, fecundity and ovaric cycle of CI mosquitoes were reduced in 70, 52 and 40% in comparison to the ones of control. Therefore, if the fungus caused a 5-fold reduction in the number of infectious mosquitoes, it has potential to be evaluated against the Dengue transmitter in field.

Palavras-Chave: Human diseases; Breeding sites; Viral diseases; Survival; Pest control; Aquatic insects; Mortality causes; Disease transmission; Public health; Mortality; Blood; Fecundity; Head; Dengue; Vectors; Vaccines; Midgut; Infection; Insects; Aedes aegypti; Dengue virus type 2; Metarhizium anisopliae

Imprenta: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, v. 7, n. 3, 2013.

Descritores: Aedes aegypti - Infectious diseases ; Aedes aegypti - Viral infections ; Aedes aegypti - Virus ; Aedes aegypti - Transmission ; Aedes aegypti - Vaccine ; Aedes aegypti - Dengue ; Aedes aegypti - Public health

Data de publicação: 2013