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Environmental and Biological Factors Influencing Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) Vector Competence for Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus

Complex interactions between environmental and biological factors influence the susceptibility of Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus to St. Louis encephalitis virus and could affect the epidemiology of virus transmission. Similar interactions could have epidemiologic implications for other vector-virus systems. We conducted an experiment to examine four such factors in combination: mosquito age, extrinsic incubation temperature (EIT), virus dose, and colony. The proportion of mosquitoes with body infections or disseminated infections varied between colonies, and was dependant on age, EIT, and dose. We also show that the probability of a body or leg infection interacted in complex ways between colonies, ages, EITs, and doses. The complex interactive effects of environmental and biological factors must be taken into account for studies of vector competence and epidemiology, especially when laboratory studies are used to generalize to natural transmission dynamics where the extent of variation is largely unknown.

Received July 18, 2008. Accepted for publication May 18, 2009.

Acknowledgments: We thank C. Mores in providing BioSafety Laboratory 3 containment space and technical advice on portions of this project; H. Robinson and K. Greene for laboratory assistance; P. Lounibos, J. Day, and two anonymous reviewers for critically reviewing earlier versions of the manuscript; D. Bustamante and L. Young for advice on statistical analyses; and D. Shroyer (Indian River County Mosquito Control, Vero Beach, FL) for providing material used to establish the 2007 mosquito colony.

Financial support: This study was supported by the National Institute of Health (grant AI-49326) to Cynthia C. Lord and Walter J. Tabachnick. Kendra Pesko was supported by a University of Florida Graduate Alumni Fellowship.

^* Address correspondence to Stephanie L. Richards, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, University of Florida, 200 9th Street Southeast, Vero Beach, FL 32962. E-mail: slrichar{at}ufl.edu

Authors’ addresses: Stephanie L. Richards, Cynthia C. Lord, and Walter J. Tabachnick, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, University of Florida, 200 9th Street Southeast, Vero Beach, FL 32962, E-mails: slrichar{at}ufl.edu , clord{at}ufl.edu , and wjt{at}ufl.edu . Kendra N. Pesko, School of Medicine, Pathology MSC08 4560, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, E-mail: KPesko{at}salud.unm.edu .

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