Invasive mosquito species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are competent vectors for Barmah Forest Virus
- 1Bernhard Nocht Institute Tropical Medicine
Abstract
Barmah Forest Virus (BFV), an arthropod-born virus transmitted by mosquitoes, is of significant public health concern in Australia and regions in the Pacific. Recent climate change and globalization raise the potential for BFV to extend its geographic distribution. Despite the rising importance of BFV, its vector dynamics remain poorly understood, particularly concerning the vector competence of different mosquito species. This study aims to investigate the vector competence of BFV across various mosquito species, beyond those endemic to the Australasian region, especially focusing on global relevant vector species. No transmission was observed for Culex quinquefasciatus and Cx. torrentium as well as Anopheles stephensi. In contrast, both investigated Aedes species, Ae. aegypti as well as Ae. albopictus, exhibited BFV-positive saliva across all four temperature profiles (18{degrees}C, 21{degrees}C, 24{degrees}C or 27{degrees}C) examined. These two invasive mosquito species must therefore be classified as potential vectors for BFV, indicating the potential risk of BFV transmission outside of Australia.
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BibTeX
@misc{heitmann2026invasive,
title = {{Invasive mosquito species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are competent vectors for Barmah Forest Virus}},
author = {A. Heitmann and P. Höller and U. Lange and A. Mack and N. Becker and J. Schmidt-Chanasit and R. Lühken and S. Jansen},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.31.748198},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.31.748198v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Invasive mosquito species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are competent vectors for Barmah Forest Virus
AU - A. Heitmann
AU - P. Höller
AU - U. Lange
AU - A. Mack
AU - N. Becker
AU - J. Schmidt-Chanasit
AU - R. Lühken
AU - S. Jansen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.31.748198
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.31.748198v1
AB - Barmah Forest Virus (BFV), an arthropod-born virus transmitted by mosquitoes, is of significant public health concern in Australia and regions in the Pacific. Recent climate change and globalization raise the potential for BFV to extend its geographic distribution. Despite the rising importance of BFV, its vector dynamics remain poorly understood, particularly concerning the vector competence of different mosquito species. This study aims to investigate the vector competence of BFV across various mosquito species, beyond those endemic to the Australasian region, especially focusing on global relevant vector species. No transmission was observed for Culex quinquefasciatus and Cx. torrentium as well as Anopheles stephensi. In contrast, both investigated Aedes species, Ae. aegypti as well as Ae. albopictus, exhibited BFV-positive saliva across all four temperature profiles (18{degrees}C, 21{degrees}C, 24{degrees}C or 27{degrees}C) examined. These two invasive mosquito species must therefore be classified as potential vectors for BFV, indicating the potential risk of BFV transmission outside of Australia.
ER -