Effect of oral infection ofLa Crossevirus on survival and fecundity of nativeOchlerotatus triseriatusand invasiveStegomyia albopicta

Abstract

Arboviruses can have benign, deleterious, or beneficial effects on the vector. We tested the hypothesis that oral infection with La Crosse virus (LACV) will have little to no effect on mosquito longevity and fecundity, a prediction of low virulence selected in a system with frequent vertical transmission. We tested the effects of infection in native Ochlerotatus triseriatus Say and invasive Stegomyia albopicta Skuse (Diptera: Culicidae). We artificially fed adult female mosquitoes of each species with either LACV-infected or uninfected bovine blood and determined adult longevity and fecundity. For females fed LACV-infected blood, bodies and legs, respectively, were separately homogenized and assayed by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to determine the LACV infection and dissemination rates. Ochlerotatus triseriatus had a higher infection and dissemination rate than St. albopicta. For both species, female size had no effect on infection status. Infection status also had no effect on longevity or fecundity for both species. We suggest that the high frequency of vertical transmission may have selected for strains of the virus with low virulence in two vectors, in spite of their different evolutionary histories with the virus.

Geographically persistent clusters of La Crosse virus disease in the Appalachian region of the United States from 2003 to 2021

“…We are not aware of any large-scale efforts to reduce LACV transmission, but local efforts may have reduced incidence in some areas [32]. It is also possible that risk of LACV-ND has declined in high-risk foci because of increased human immunity or the development of LACV-resistance in mosquito populations [33][34][35]. Another important consideration is that we could not adjust for age or sex in our calculations of CI; the median age is increasing in Appalachia and the US overall [36], which could confound temporal comparisons of raw CI for LACV-ND, which predominately occurs in children.…”

Trypanosoma rangeli infection impairs reproductive success of Rhodnius prolixus

“…Infection by T. rangeli severely affected all reproductive parameters evaluated, in addition to decreasing life expectancy rates of R. prolixus . Many parasites and pathogens reduce fecundity and host survival (Williamson and Von Wechmar, 1995 ; Maciel-de-Freitas et al ., 2011 ); while some only interfere with fecundity and fertility (Styer et al ., 2007 ), others do not promote alterations in any of these parameters (Costanzo et al ., 2014 ).…”

How do Nutritional Stress and La Crosse Virus Infection Interact? Tests for Effects on Willingness to Blood Feed and Fecundity inAedes albopictus(Diptera: Culicidae)

“…triseriatus and Ae. albopictus (Costanzo et al 2013). This finding raises interesting physiological questions because both species take smaller bloodmeals when LACV infected (Jackson et al 2012).…”

“…triseriatus and Ae. albopictus (Grimstad et al 1980, Jackson et al 2012), but it did not affect female survivorship or fecundity in the first gonotrophic cycle for these species under benign laboratory conditions (Costanzo et al 2013). In this paper, we test whether short-term nutritional stress of adult Ae.…”