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MOSQUITO FEEDING PATTERNS AND NATURAL INFECTION OF VERTEBRATES WITH ROSS RIVER AND BARMAH FOREST VIRUSES IN BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

Host feeding patterns of mosquitoes were assessed through the identification of 865 blood meals collected from Brisbane during 2000–2001. Under natural conditions, mosquito feeding (including that of Culex annulirostris, Aedes vigilax, and Aedes notoscriptus) was primarily on dogs (37.4%), but also on birds (18.4%), horses (16.8%), brushtail possums (13.3%), humans (11.6%), and cats, flying foxes, and macropods, depending on site. From 1997 to 1999, sera (N = 1706) were collected from dogs, cats, horses, flying foxes, and brushtail possums in the Brisbane area and were analyzed by microneutralization assay for antibodies to Ross River virus (RRV) and Barmah Forest virus (BFV). For RRV, all vertebrate species tested had been naturally infected, and seroprevalence varied from 10.5% to 25.5%, whereas for BFV, rates varied between 0% and 11.3%. Brushtail possums were often infected in the field, with 17.6% and 10.7% of wild individuals having antibodies to RRV and BFV, respectively. Horses and flying foxes also had a relatively high prevalence of antibodies to RRV. This study, therefore, provides data to indicate that brushtail possums play a role in the urban transmission of RRV in Brisbane and that horses, when they occur, also fill the same role.

Received September 4, 2006. Accepted for publication November 18, 2006.

Acknowledgments: This study forms part of A. M. Boyd’s PhD dissertion at the University of Queensland. She thanks Kim Pham, Andrew van den Hurk (UQ), and John Aaskov (Queensland University of Technology) for advice on blood-meal analyses and Leith Poulsen for technical assistance. The authors thank Veterinary Pathology Services, Brisbane. and Scott Smith and Hume Field, Animal Research Institute, Brisbane. for supplying sera for testing and Kim Halpin, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, for providing the flying fox antisera used for blood-meal analyses.

Financial support: This study was financed by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra.

^* Address correspondence to Brian H. Kay, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Post Office Royal Brisbane Hospital, Queensland 4029, Australia. E-mail: brian.kay{at}qimr.edu.au

Authors’ addresses: Brian H. Kay and Peter A. Ryan, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Post Office Royal Brisbane Hospital, Queensland 4029, Australia, Telephone: 61-7-3362-0350, Fax: 61-7-3362-0104, E-mails: brian.kay{at}qimr.edu.au and peter.ryan{at}qimr.edu.au. Ann Marie Boyd, formerly Queensland Institute of Medical Research, currently Pine Rivers Shire Council, PO Box 5070, Strathpine Queensland 4500, Australia, E-mail: Ann-Marie.Boyd{at}pinerivers.qld.gov.au. Roy A. Hall, School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia, E-mail: roy.hall{at}uq.edu.au.