Researchers detected dengue virus and human blood meals in wild Aedes mosquitoes collected near the Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Angola, according to a study published in Nature Communications. The surveillance data provides evidence of endemic dengue transmission in southwestern DRC, an area that has experienced recent chikungunya and yellow fever outbreaks even as arboviruses receive less attention than malaria.
The team conducted metagenomic and targeted sequencing on eight randomly selected field pools comprising 155 mosquitoes taken from three collection sites in Kimpese, DRC. High-confidence dengue virus reads appeared in six of the eight pools, or 75 percent. Sequencing confirmed human blood meals in all eight pools, indicating frequent feeding on local human populations.
The genomic analysis identified diverse mosquito viromes that included other known and putative human and animal viruses. Aedes mosquitoes serve as primary vectors across the DRC for dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses. The authors reported that testing wild-caught mosquitoes offers a viable approach for xenosurveillance of emerging pathogens in under-monitored regions.
Jonathan J. Juliano and Jonathan B. Parr jointly supervised the investigation, collaborating with co-authors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Kinshasa, Emory University School of Medicine, Western Connecticut State University, and the Kinshasa School of Public Health. The study received funding through a Yang Biomedical Scholar award, NIAID grant K24AI134990, the UNC Office for Research, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
