Abstract:
Aedes aegypti is the main vector of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever and
represents a significant public health problem. Many strategies, such as vector
eradication programs, chemical control measures and environmental sanitation with
community participation, have been used to prevent or control dengue outbreaks.
Although many programs for mosquito control have been developed, there has been
limited contemporary success in controlling the dengue vector. The purpose of this
research was to determine the potential of densoviruses as biological control agents of
Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. Four mosquito densovirus strains, AThDNV, AaPV, AeDNV
and APeDNV were assayed for mortality and infectivity against larvae of Aedes
aegypti from different geographic regions. All strains of densoviruses exhibited
larvicidal activity and caused 80% mortality and infectivity in the three mosquito
strains. AaPV-infected Ae. aegypti larvae had the highest mortality rate, 90%
mortality within 10 days in all mosquito strains. A few mosquitoes from
Chachoengsao and Bangkok exposed to AeDNV and AThDNV survived to the adult
stage and showed 22-50% vertical transmission in the F1 generation. Phylogenetic
analysis of four densovirus strains used in this study and those other reference strains
indicated that these mosquito densoviruses could be separated into two clades.
Laboratory and semi-field studies were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of
Mesocyclops thermocyclopiodes (copepods), Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis
(Bti) and the Thai densovirus strain (AThDNV) against Aedes aegypti larvae collected
from dengue endemic areas in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand. Mosquito larvae
were exposed to each biocontrol agent alone and to combinations of them and the
surviving mosquitoes were monitored weekly. The combination of copepod-Btidensovirus
provided better mosquito control than using each treatment alone or using
combinations of two of them. These novel integrative approaches could possibly be
applied in different endemic areas to control dengue transmission. The pathogenicity
to Ae. aegypti mosquitoes of the AeDNV strain with altered sequence context at the
starting codon of the NS1 gene was evaluated. Viral DNA replication determined by
real-time PCR was not significantly different among AeDNV-mutant and wild type
strains. AeDNV-mutant2 caused the highest mortality in mosquitoes (58.33%) but was
not significantly different from the others when analyzed by ANOVA analysis (F=
1.915; df= 11, 44; p= 0.140).