Experimental Transmission and Field Isolation Studies Implicating Culex Pipiens as a Vector of Rift Valley Fever Virus in Egypt

James M. Meegan United States Naval Medical Research Unit Number Three (NAMRU-3), American Embassy, Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

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Galila M. Khalil United States Naval Medical Research Unit Number Three (NAMRU-3), American Embassy, Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

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Harry Hoogstraal United States Naval Medical Research Unit Number Three (NAMRU-3), American Embassy, Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

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Fatma K. Adham United States Naval Medical Research Unit Number Three (NAMRU-3), American Embassy, Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.1980.29.1405
Volume/Issue:
Volume 29: Issue 6
Page(s):
1405–1410
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Attempts were made to isolate virus from wild caught mosquitoes during the 1977 and 1978 Rift Valley fever (RVF) epizootics in Egypt. Over 95% of the 55,126 mosquitoes collected from epizootic areas in the Nile Delta and Valley were Culex pipiens. Two strains of RVF virus were isolated from unengorged female C. pipiens taken in 1978. Laboratory-reared C. pipiens originating from a population sample from the Nile Delta epizootic area transmitted RVF virus. The infection rate of mosquitoes that fed on viremic hamsters was 86.7%; the transmission rate was 40.0% (46.2% based only on infected mosquitoes). From these results, it is suggested that C. pipiens was a vector of RVF virus during the 1977–1978 epizootics in Egypt.

Author Notes

Present address: Yale Arbovirus Research Unit, 60 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06510.

Copyright:
Copyright © 1980 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1980
Accepted:
15 Mar 1980
|
Published Online:
Nov 1980
Cover The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Print ISSN:
0002-9637
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