Effects of Triturated Culiseta melanura (Diptera: Culicidae) on Recovery of Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis Virus

Abstract

Experiments were done to determine the effect, if any, of larval and adult Culiseta melanura (Coquillett) suspensions on the recovery of eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus in baby hamster kidney (BHK) and Vero cell cultures. Although triturated pools of this mosquito reduced the titer of EEE virus added to suspensions, suspensions prepared from as many as 100 Cs. melanura larvae or adults did not reduce titers of virus to undetectable levels. Similarly, the titer of EEE virus in orally infected female Cs. melanura remained detectable when a single infected mosquito was triturated in a pool with 99 uninfected mosquitoes. These results show that in BHK or Vero cell culture assay systems, triturated Cs. melanura do not completely prevent the detection of EEE virus. The results therefore indicate that mosquito suspensions would not interfere with the isolation of virus from field-collected mosquitoes. This conclusion suggests that mosquito suspensions were not a factor in previous studies that were unsuccessful at detecting transovarial transmission of EEE virus by Cs. melanura.