Dynamics of the natural focus of Tahyna virus in southern Moravia and species succession of its vectors, the mosquitoes of the genus Aedes.

The paper deals with the occurrence of Aedes mosquitoes in southern Moravia and with Tahyna virus infection rates for them in 1972; a comparison of the data from previous years reveals the dynamics of the natural focus under long-term study. A total of 13,204 mosquitoes of the genus Aedes was processed in 122 tests, resulting in 17 Tahyna virus strains isolates. As concerns the valence of the natural focus, the most important was the inundated forest in the Drnholec locality. Infection rates for the mosquitoes were also determined in various microbiotopes of the said locality. A. cinereus, from which Tahyna virus was first isolated in the summer of 1972, was much more numerous than in the preceding seasons studied, indicating its important role as vector of Tahyna virus. The cell line of Aedes albopictus was demonstrated to be susceptible enough for virus detection from mosquitoes collected in the field.