{ "abstract": "Oropouche virus (OROV) is an arthropod-borne virus transmitted mainly by Culicoides paraensis midges in Latin America and the Caribbean, though evidence suggests occasional transmission by mosquitoes. Oropouche fever has been reported primarily in the Amazon Basin since the 1950s. In 2024, the number of Oropouche fever cases rose sharply and spread beyond the Amazon region, which has been associated with the emergence of a new reassortant OROV strain. We assessed whether increased case numbers could be explained by enhanced replication or transmission of the reassortant strain in peri-urban Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes albopictus. Laboratory colonies established from Salvador, Brazil were orally exposed to the ancestral OROV strain BeAn 19991 or the contemporary strain 240023 (10⁴–10⁶ PFU/mL), and viral replication was quantified in bodies, legs, and saliva. To evaluate the influence of mosquito genotype on infection outcomes, infection rates were compared between Ae. albopictus from Salvador City (Brazil) and Houston (USA). In Cx. quinquefasciatus, the outbreak strain replicated less efficiently than the historical strain at low viral doses but not at high infection doses. Regardless of strain or dose, vector competence was extremely low, with only 0–1% of mosquitoes exhibiting infectious OROV particles in their saliva after extrinsic incubation. Conversely, Ae. albopictus showed consistently higher body infection rates for the 240023 strain than for BeAn 19991 at both low and high doses. However, overall transmission potential remained limited: only 0–6.4% of leg or saliva samples were positive across OROV strains and doses. The higher infection rates of the 240023 strain was consistent across both Ae. albopictus genotypes, but infectious saliva was detected only in mosquitoes from the Salvador line (up to 20%) and not in the Houston line (0%). Taken together, this suggests that the recent geographic expansion of OROV is unlikely to be driven by a vector shift from midges to these mosquitoes. Importantly, our findings do indicate higher infectivity of the 240023 strain in Ae. albopictus across different mosquito lines which may have future implications for further adaptation to OROV. Author summary: OROV is a midge-borne disease, and some field and experimental studies have evidence that mosquitoes may also be involved in OROV transmission. Previous vector studies have focused on historical OROV strains or vectors from non-endemic regions. At present, the current role of mosquitoes from endemic areas in the spread of contemporary OROV strains associated with the emergence since 2023 remains understudied. We reported a vector competence study of Ae. albopictus and Cx. quinquefasciatus for OROV from OROV-endemic (Brazil) and non-endemic (USA) areas and directly compared historical and contemporary OROV strains across multiple infection doses, including those that closely recapitulate human viremia levels. Our data allowed us to identify the higher infectivity of the OROV strain 240023 (contemporary) in Ae. albopictus bodies at both low and high doses. Our data showed that peridomestic or urban mosquitoes (Ae. albopictus and Cx. quinquefasciatus) exhibit very limited competence for OROV transmission. Our results indicate that the recent expansion of OROV into new geographic areas is unlikely to be driven by a shift from midges to these mosquitoes. These findings reinforce the need to prioritize control of Culicoides paraensis, which is the primary OROV vector.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America", "Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America", "World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America", "Laboratory of Emerging Viruses, Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil", "Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil" ], "article_type": "Research Article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 15, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Angel Elma I. Abu" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Xinyi Hua" }, { "affs": [ 0, 2 ], "name": "Rachel Sattler" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Margaret V. Becker" }, { "affs": [ 1, 3 ], "name": "Julia Forato" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Shirlene T. S. de Lima" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Ingra M. Claro" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Gabriel C. Scachetti" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Leda M. Simões Mello" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Maria Anice M. Sallum" }, { "affs": [ 0, 2 ], "name": "Kenneth S. Plante" }, { "affs": [ 0, 2 ], "name": "Scott C. Weaver" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "José Luiz Proenca-Modena" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "William M. de Souza" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Laura B. Dickson", "orcid": "0000-0002-7540-1189" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fh2y1h91m89k3.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656", "fulltext_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656", "id": "fh2y1h91m89k3", "issns": [ "1935-2735", "1935-2727" ], "landing_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656", "language": "en", "licence": "CC-BY-4.0", "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "heading", "Anatomy" ], [ "heading", "Animals" ], [ "heading", "Arthropoda" ], [ "heading", "Biology and Life Sciences" ], [ "heading", "Body Fluids" ], [ "heading", "Brazil" ], [ "heading", "Disease Vectors" ], [ "heading", "Entomology" ], [ "heading", "Eukaryota" ], [ "heading", "Geographical locations" ], [ "heading", "Infectious Diseases" ], [ "heading", "Insect Vectors" ], [ "heading", "Insects" ], [ "heading", "Invertebrates" ], [ "heading", "Medical Conditions" ], [ "heading", "Medicine and Health Sciences" ], [ "heading", "Microbiology" ], [ "heading", "Mosquitoes" ], [ "heading", "Organisms" ], [ "heading", "Oropouche Fever" ], [ "heading", "People and places" ], [ "heading", "Physiology" ], [ "heading", "Research Article" ], [ "heading", "Saliva" ], [ "heading", "South America" ], [ "heading", "Species Interactions" ], [ "heading", "Vector-Borne Diseases" ], [ "heading", "Viral Diseases" ], [ "heading", "Viral Load" ], [ "heading", "Viral Replication" ], [ "heading", "Viral Transmission and Infection" ], [ "heading", "Viremia" ], [ "heading", "Virology" ], [ "heading", "Zoology" ], [ "heading", "Zoonoses" ], [ "lcc", "RA1-1270" ], [ "lcc", "RC955-962" ], [ "openalex", "2739|Mosquito-borne diseases and control" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Body fluids/Saliva" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Microbiology/Virology/Viral replication" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Microbiology/Virology/Viral transmission and infection/Viral load" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Eukaryota/Animals/Invertebrates/Arthropoda/Insects/Mosquitoes" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Physiology/Body fluids/Saliva" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Species interactions/Disease vectors/Insect vectors/Mosquitoes" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Zoology/Animals/Invertebrates/Arthropoda/Insects/Mosquitoes" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Zoology/Entomology/Insects/Mosquitoes" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Body fluids/Saliva" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Infectious diseases/Disease vectors/Insect vectors/Mosquitoes" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Infectious diseases/Vector-borne diseases" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Infectious diseases/Viral diseases/Viremia" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Infectious diseases/Zoonoses/Oropouche fever" ], [ "plos", "/People and places/Geographical locations/South America/Brazil" ] ], "openalex": "W7223410742", "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656&type=printable", "pmcid": "PMC13730421", "pmid": "42912820", "published": "2026-10-01", "publisher": "Public Library of Science", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fh2y1h91m89k3.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:17Z", "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656", "source": "plos", "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-05T14:21:24Z", "native_id": "0b9805521b974ba5bd26941e14a90b5b", "source": "doaj", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-07T12:22:59Z", "native_id": "PMC13730421", "source": "pmc", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0014656" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "biology", "origin": "plos:virology", "subfield": "microbiology" }, { "field": "biology", "origin": "heading:Entomology", "subfield": "zoology-behaviour" }, { "field": "medicine", "origin": "plos:infectious diseases", "subfield": "infectious-disease" }, { "field": "medicine", "origin": "plos:anatomy", "subfield": "physiology" } ], "title": "Vector competence of Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus for Oropouche virus", "title_text": "Vector competence of Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus for Oropouche virus", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-07T14:20:37Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fh2y1h91m89k3", "venue": "PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases", "versions": [] }