Authors: Anna Papa Kyriaki Xanthopoulou Aikaterini Tsioka Stella Kalaitzopoulou Spiros Mourelatos
Publish Date: 2013/01/31
Volume: 112, Issue: 4, Pages: 1551-1555
Abstract
Epidemics of West Nile virus WNV occurred for two consecutive years in Greece in 2010 and 2011 A total of 16116 adult Culex pipiens mosquitoes collected in two peripheries Central Macedonia and Thessaly were tested for WNV infection WNV lineage 2 was detected in 6/296 mosquito pools three in each year The H249P substitution in the NS3 protein previously associated with increased pathogenicity and thermotolerance was detected in all six WNVpositive mosquito pools When 21 individual C pipiens mosquitoes were tested for the locus CQ11 to distinguish between the two C pipiens forms pipiens and molestus 714 were identified as pipiens 47 as molestus and 19 as hybrid pipiens/molestus giving the first evidence that both C pipiens biotypes are present in Greece with a significant proportion being hybrids The exact role of the C pipiens forms and hybrids in the WNV epidemiology in combination or not with the H249P substitution in the virus genome remains to be elucidatedThe study was financially supported by the Development Agency of Thessaloniki SA and the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention We thank AnnaBella Failloux in Pasteur Institute Paris for helpful discussions on the molecular identification of the C pipiens biotypes
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