Interepidemic xenosurveillance of Japanese encephalitis virus and Zika virus in Culex mosquitoes from Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand

Vet World Vol.17 July-2024 Article - 16

Research Article

Veterinary World, 17(7): 1555-1561

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1555-1561

Wilasinee Surasa¹, Chamsai Pientong^1,2, Tipaya Ekalaksananan^1,2, Hans Jorgen Overgaard^1,3, Sirinart Aromseree^1,2, and Supranee Phanthanawiboon¹

1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
2. HPV&EBV and Carcinogenesis, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
3. Department of Medical Entomologist, Faculty of Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.

Background and Aim: Some Culex mosquitoes are competent vectors for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and Zika virus (ZIKV), which cause public health problems worldwide, especially in South-east Asia. Xenosurveillance of Culex mosquitoes remains limited compared with other common mosquito-borne diseases. This study aimed to identify JEV and ZIKV in field-caught Culex mosquitoes collected from Ubon Ratchathani province.

Materials and Methods: We investigated the presence of JEV and ZIKV in Culex mosquitoes from two districts in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, and examined their role in viral interepidemic circulation. Female Culex mosquitoes (5,587) were collected using a mechanical aspirator from indoors and outdoors. The consensus sequences of the E and NS1 genes of JEV and the E gene of ZIKV were identified using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

Results: From 335 sample pools that contain a total of 5587 adult female Culex mosquitoes collected from Don Yung, Mueang district (4,406) and Phon Duan, Det Udom district (1,181), none of the collected mosquitoes tested positive for either JEV or ZIKV.

Conclusion: This study did not find JEV and ZIKV in Culex mosquitoes collected from the area of collection, which may be due to the low circulating amount of the virus in the vectors in the area, making it undetectable, or it may be because Culex mosquitoes are not suitable vector for the virus being tested. However, further xenosurveillance study of JEV and ZIKV in mosquito is suggested to prepare for the next outbreak.

Keywords: Culex, Japanese encephalitis virus, Thailand, xenosurveillance, Zika.

How to cite this article: Surasa W, Pientong C, Ekalaksananan T, Overgaard HJ, Aromseree S, and Phanthanawiboon S (2024) Interepidemic xenosurveillance of Japanese encephalitis virus and Zika virus in Culex mosquitoes from Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, Veterinary World, 17(7): 1555-1561.

Received: 2024-04-12 Accepted: 2024-06-20 Published online: 2024-07-21

Corresponding author: Supranee Phanthanawiboon E-mail: supraph@kku.ac.th

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1555-1561

Copyright: Surasa, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.