Surveillance of mosquito vectors in Southern Sweden for Flaviviruses and Sindbis virus

Jenny C Hesson; Emma Lundin; Åke Lundkvist; Jan O Lundström

doi:10.1080/20008686.2019.1698903

Surveillance of mosquito vectors in Southern Sweden for Flaviviruses and Sindbis virus

Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 2019 Dec 5;9(1):1698903. doi: 10.1080/20008686.2019.1698903. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Jenny C Hesson¹, Emma Lundin¹, Åke Lundkvist¹, Jan O Lundström^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology/Zoonosis Science Center, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
² Biologisk Myggkontroll, Nedre Dalälven Utvecklings AB, Gysinge, Sweden.

Abstract

There are three human pathogenic bird-viruses transmitted by Culex mosquitoes in Europe: the alphavirus Sindbis and the flaviviruses West Nile virus and Usutu virus. Cases of Sindbis fever occur in the north while the flaviviruses are reported from southern Europe. In this study, 7933 Culex pipiens/torrentium mosquitoes from southern Sweden were screened by RTqPCR for these viruses. None of the mosquitoes were positive for viral RNA. The importance of mosquito species composition is discussed as a potential explanation to the lack of detection of mosquito-borne viruses in southern Sweden. However, continued surveillance of mosquitoes for Flaviviruses would be valuable as an early warning for public health awareness.

Keywords: Culex pipiens; Culex torrentium; Usutu virus; West Nile virus; infection rate; pan-flavi PCR.