Susceptibility and Vectorial Capacity of American Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) to American Zika Virus Strains.

The rapid expansion of Zika virus (ZIKV), following the recent outbreaks of Chikungunya virus, overwhelmed the public health infrastructure in many countries and alarmed many in the scientific community. Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) have previously been incriminated as the vectors of these pathogens in addition to dengue virus. In our study, we challenged low generation Ae. aegypti (Chiapas, Mexico) and Ae. albopictus (North Carolina, Mississippi), with three strains of ZIKV, Puerto Rico (GenBank: KU501215), Honduras (GenBank: KX694534), and Miami (GenBank: MF988743). Following an oral challenge with 107.5 PFU/ml of the Puerto Rico strain, we observed high infection and dissemination rates in both species (95%). We report estimated transmission rates for both species (74 and 33%, for Ae. aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) and Ae. albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae), respectively), and the presence of a probable salivary gland barrier in Ae. albopictus to Zika virus. Finally, we calculated vectorial capacity for both species and found that Ae. albopictus had a slightly lower vectorial capacity when compared with Ae. aegypti.Second Language Abstract: La rápida expansión del virus Zika, poco después de las epidemias de chikungunya, rebaso la infraestructura de salud pública en muchos países y sorprendió a muchos en la comunidad científica. Notablemente, Aedes aegypti y Aedes albopictus transmiten estos patógenos además del virus del dengue. En este estudio se expusieron con tres cepas americanas de virus Zika a grupos de Aedes aegypti y Aedes albopictus de generación reciente. Encontramos altos porcentajes de infección y diseminación en ambas especies (95%). Se reporta, la transmisión viral en ambas especies (74 y 33%, para Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, respectivamente) y una probable barrera a nivel de glándulas salivarías. Finalmente, calculamos la capacidad vectorial para ambas especies.