Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) Surveillance for Arboviruses in an Area Endemic for West Nile (Lineage Rabensburg) and Tahyna Viruses in Central Europe

Six viral isolates were obtained from 23,243 female mosquitoes (examined in 513 pools) belonging to 16 species and collected along the lower reaches of the Dyje River in South Moravia (Czech Republic, central Europe) during 2006-2008: five isolates of Orthobunyavirus Tahyna (TAHV, California group, family Bunyaviridae: three isolations from Aedes vexans (Meigen), one from Ae. sticticus (Meigen), one from Culex modestus Ficalbi); and one isolation of Flavivirus West Nile (WNV, Japanese encephalitis group, family Flaviviridae)-strain Rabensburg (proposed lineage 3 of WNV) from Ae. rossicus (Dolbeshkin et al). All viral isolates were recovered from mosquitoes collected in 2006 (15,882 mosquitoes examined), while no virus was isolated from mosquitoes trapped in 2007 and 2008, when 1,555 and 5,806 mosquitoes were examined, respectively. The population density of local mosquitoes was very low in 2007 and 2008 because of warm and dry summer including a considerably low water table, compared with environmental conditions favorable for mosquito development in 2006. The virus isolation procedure was based on intracerebral inoculation of newborn mice. In parallel, more than one-third of the samples (183 pools consisting of 8,470 individual mosquitoes) were also examined by inoculating Vero cell cultures in Leighton tubes. However, the latter method detected only three of the six virus isolates (including WNV-Rabensburg). Ae. rossicus is a new potential vector for WNV-Rabensburg. This species feeds mostly on mammals including man; this raises the question whether this virus lineage is not adapted to an alternative mosquito-mammal cycle in the South-Moravian natural focus.