The major complications of an ongoing Zika virus outbreak in the Americas and Asia are congenital defects caused by the virus’s ability to cross the placenta and infect the fetal brain. The ability to generate molecular tools to analyze viral isolates from the current outbreak is essential for furthering our understanding of how these viruses cause congenital defects. The majority of existing viral isolates and infectious cDNA clones generated from them have undergone various numbers of passages in cell culture and/or suckling mice, which is likely to result in the accumulation of adaptive mutations that may affect viral properties. The approach described herein allows rapid generation of new, fully functional Zika virus isolates directly from deep sequencing data from virus-infected tissues without the need for prior virus passaging and for the generation and propagation of full-length cDNA clones. The approach should be applicable to other medically important flaviviruses and perhaps other positive-strand RNA viruses.

The effects of pyriproxyfen were tested against a local population of Aedes aegypti (L.) in Iquitos, Perú. Bioassays showed that, when applied to late instars, pyriproxyfen prevented adult emergence at extremely low concentrations (LC 50 0.012 ppb). There was no adult emergence from water sampled from storage tanks that had been seeded with the equivalent of 50 Ð 83 ppb (AI) pyriproxyfen. Five months after treatment, despite constant dilution of these tanks, water sampled from these sources continued to be lethal to larvae and pupae. Additional studies, carried out in the laboratory, showed that groups of Þve or 20 female blood-fed mosquitoes, exposed to residues of 0.003 g (AI) pyriproxyfen/m 2 , could transfer enough chemical to new oviposition sites to prevent 80% of adult emergence from larvae developing in that previously uncontaminated water. Moreover, although the fecundity of the adult females used as the transfer vehicles in these tests was unaffected, the subsequent eclosion of the eggs that these mosquitoes laid was decreased by 70 Ð90%. It also was shown that, at very high concentrations (30,000 ppb), pyriproxyfen-treated water sources were as likely to be used as oviposition sites as untreated sources. These data suggest that treated sites might act as sinks for mosquito reproduction and moreover that such sites might act as dissemination sources for the horizontal transfer of larvicides to new environments by mature females. We review the literature on the environmental and human health effects of this compound and discuss its potential for use as a mosquito control agent in the Þeld.

The effects of pyriproxyfen were tested against a local population of Aedes aegypti (L.) in Iquitos, Perú. Bioassays showed that, when applied to late instars, pyriproxyfen prevented adult emergence at extremely low concentrations (LC50 = 0.012 ppb). There was no adult emergence from water sampled from storage tanks that had been seeded with the equivalent of 50-83 ppb (AI) pyriproxyfen. Five months after treatment, despite constant dilution of these tanks, water sampled from these sources continued to be lethal to larvae and pupae. Additional studies, carried out in the laboratory, showed that groups of five or 20 female blood-fed mosquitoes, exposed to residues of approximately 0.003 g (AI) pyriproxyfen/m2, could transfer enough chemical to new oviposition sites to prevent approximately 80% of adult emergence from larvae developing in that previously uncontaminated water. Moreover, although the fecundity of the adult females used as the transfer vehicles in these tests was unaffected, the subsequent eclosion of the eggs that these mosquitoes laid was decreased by 70-90%. It also was shown that, at very high concentrations (>30,000 ppb), pyriproxyfen-treated water sources were as likely to be used as oviposition sites as untreated sources. These data suggest that treated sites might act as sinks for mosquito reproduction and moreover that such sites might act as dissemination sources for the horizontal transfer of larvicides to new environments by mature females. We review the literature on the environmental and human health effects of this compound and discuss its potential for use as a mosquito control agent in the field.

Bioassays of nicotine and imidacloprid against clones of Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and Myzus nicotianae (Blackman) from around the world demonstrated that some had low levels of resistance to both compounds. This was (expressed not only as a reduced mortality, but more markedly as differential inhibition of feeding by imidacloprid concentrations in the parts per billion range. Such concentrations also reduced aphid fecundity by inhibiting the production and viability of nymphs, and this effect was more marked for susceptible aphids than for those showing reduced direct lethal and antifeedant effects.

To date, no methodology has been described for predicting the age of Aedes albopictus Skuse mosquitoes, commonly known as Asian tiger mosquitoes. In this study, we report the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique for characterizing the age of female laboratory reared Ae. albopictus. Using leave-one-out cross-validation analysis on a training set, laboratory reared mosquitoes preserved in RNAlater for up to a month were assessed at 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 16, 20 and 25 days post emergence. Mosquitoes (N = 322) were differentiated into two age classes (< or ≥ 7 days) with 93% accuracy, into three age classes (<7, 7–13 and >13 days old) with 76% accuracy, and on a continuous age scale to within ±3 days of their actual average age. Similarly, models predicted mosquitoes (N = 146) excluded from the training model with 94% and 71% accuracy to the two and the three age groups, respectively. We show for the first time that NIRS, with an improved spectrometer and fibre configuration, can be used to predict the age of laboratory reared female Ae. albopictus. Characterization of the age of Ae. albopictus populations is crucial for determining the efficacy of vector control interventions that target their survival.