Mosquito vectors of yellow fever virus in areas of epidemiological risk in northeastern Argentina

Abstract

Due to several epizootic events between 2020 and 2021 in the south of Brazil near the border with Argentina, we performed mosquito surveys in areas of epidemiological risk in northeast Argentina to evaluate abundance and distributions of mosquito vectors from the yellow fever virus (YFV) (Diptera: Culicidae). For the most abundant species, the number of individuals captured per collector was evaluated based on the capturing time range. With a total sampling effort of 191 collector-hours, we captured 676 mosquitoes belonging to 6 genera and 16 species. The most abundant species were Aedes (Ochlerotatus) scapularis (Rondani) (33.58%), Sabethes (Sabethes) albiprivus Theobald (20.27%), Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse) (17.75%) and Haemagogus (Conopostegus) leucocelaenus (Dyar and Shannon) (15.86%). Sabethes albiprivus and Ae. albopictus showed activity peaks at noon and morning, respectively, while other species showed no important time differences between 10:00AM and 15:00PM. Our results show that the most abundant mosquito species in those environments with epidemiological risk in northern Corrientes and southern Misiones are categorized as important in the transmission of the YFV. Moreover, we report an expansion of Ae. albopictus distribution and the first record of Aedes (Ochlerotatus) patersoni Shannon and Del Ponte in Corrientes and Misiones provinces.

Keywords

• arbovirus
• Aedes albopictus
• Haemagogus leucocelaenus
• Sabethes albiprivus