Mosquito survey in Mauritania: Detection of Rift Valley fever virus and dengue virus and the determination of feeding patterns

by Franziska Stoek, Yahya Barry, Aliou Ba, Ansgar Schulz, Melanie Rissmann, Claudia Wylezich, Balal Sadeghi, Abdellahi Diambar Beyit, Albert Eisenbarth, Fatimetou Bounene N ’diaye, Mohamed Lemine Haki, Baba Abdellahi Doumbia, Mohamed Baba Gueya, Mohamed Yahya Bah, Martin Eiden, Martin H. Groschup In Mauritania, several mosquito-borne viruses have been reported that can cause devastating diseases in animals and humans. However, monitoring data on their occurrence and local distribution are limited. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arthropod-borne virus that causes major outbreaks throug hout the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula. The first Rift Valley fever (RVF) epidemic in Mauritania occurred in 1987 and since then the country has been affected by recurrent outbreaks of the disease. To gain information on the occurrence of RVFV as well as other mosquito-borne viruses an d their vectors in Mauritania, we collected and examined 4,950 mosquitoes, belonging to four genera and 14 species. The mosquitoes were captured during 2018 in the capital Nouakchott and in southern parts of Mauritania. Evidence of RVFV was found in a mosquito pool of femaleAnopheles pharoensis mosquitoes collected in December on a farm near the Senegal River. At that time, 37.5% of 16 tested Montb éliarde cattle on the farm showed RVFV-specific IgM antibodies. Additionally, we detected IgM antibodies in 10.7% of 28 indigenous cattle that had been sampled on the same farm one month earlier. ...
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research