Viruses (Mar 2020)

Survey on Non-Human Primates and Mosquitoes Does not Provide Evidences of Spillover/Spillback between the Urban and Sylvatic Cycles of Yellow Fever and Zika Viruses Following Severe Outbreaks in Southeast Brazil

  • Filipe Vieira Santos de Abreu,
  • Anielly Ferreira-de-Brito,
  • Adriana de Souza Azevedo,
  • José Henrique Rezende Linhares,
  • Vanessa de Oliveira Santos,
  • Emily Hime Miranda,
  • Maycon Sebastião Alberto Santos Neves,
  • Lena Yousfi,
  • Ieda Pereira Ribeiro,
  • Alexandre Araújo Cunha dos Santos,
  • Edmilson dos Santos,
  • Taissa Pereira dos Santos,
  • Danilo Simonini Teixeira,
  • Marcelo Quintela Gomes,
  • Camilla Bayma Fernandes,
  • Andrea Marques Vieira da Silva,
  • Monique da Rocha Queiroz Lima,
  • Christophe Paupy,
  • Alessandro Pecego Martins Romano,
  • Ana Paula Dinis Ano Bom,
  • Luzia Maria de Oliveira-Pinto,
  • Sara Moutailler,
  • Monique de Albuquerque Motta,
  • Márcia Gonçalves Castro,
  • Myrna Cristina Bonaldo,
  • Sheila Maria Barbosa de Lima,
  • Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/v12040364
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 4
p. 364

Abstract

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In the last decade, Flaviviruses such as yellow fever (YFV) and Zika (ZIKV) have expanded their transmission areas. These viruses originated in Africa, where they exhibit both sylvatic and interhuman transmission cycles. In Brazil, the risk of YFV urbanization has grown, with the sylvatic transmission approaching the most densely populated metropolis, while concern about ZIKV spillback to a sylvatic cycle has risen. To investigate these health threats, we carried out extensive collections and arbovirus screening of 144 free-living, non-human primates (NHPs) and 5219 mosquitoes before, during, and after ZIKV and YFV outbreaks (2015−2018) in southeast Brazil. ZIKV infection was not detected in any NHP collected at any time. In contrast, current and previous YFV infections were detected in NHPs sampled between 2017 and 2018, but not before the onset of the YFV outbreak. Mosquito pools screened by high-throughput PCR were positive for YFV when captured in the wild and during the YFV outbreak, but were negative for 94 other arboviruses, including ZIKV, regardless of the time of collection. In conclusion, there was no evidence of YFV transmission in coastal southeast Brazil before the current outbreak, nor the spread or establishment of an independent sylvatic cycle of ZIKV or urban Aedes aegypti transmission of YFV in the region. In view of the region’s receptivity and vulnerability to arbovirus transmission, surveillance of NHPs and mosquitoes should be strengthened and continuous.

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