[A study on transmission of dengue virus by Culex fatigans]

Patients with acute dengue fever within 2 days of onset were simultaneously bitten by Culex fatigans, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, which were fed and incubated in the laboratory. Isolation and quantitative assay of dengue virus and transmission experiment were conducted on specimens collected from 3 kinds of mosquitoes at different time. The result showed a positive rate of 5.13% (2/39) and an average viral titer of 2.41 logTCID50, for Culex fatigans, which indicates that Culex fatigans might be naturally infected with dengue virus and might transmit dengue virus after infection. But the positive rate and infection rate of Culex fatigans were significantly lower than those of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopitus, which indicates that Culex fatigans might play a less important role in the transmission of dengue virus.