Invasive Aedes japonicus Mosquitoes Dominate the Aedes Fauna Collected with Gravid Traps in Wooster, Northeastern Ohio, USA

Japanese Encephalitis: Risk of Emergence in the United States and the Resulting Impact

Japanese encephalitis virus is a mosquito-borne member of the Flaviviridae family. JEV is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia and is characterized by encephalitis, high lethality, and neurological sequelae in survivors. The virus also causes severe disease in swine, which are an amplifying host in the transmission cycle, and in horses. US agricultural authorities have recently recognized the threat to the swine industry and initiated preparedness activities. Other mosquito-borne viruses exotic to the Western Hemisphere have been introduced and established in recent years, including West Nile, Zika, and chikungunya viruses, and JEV has recently invaded continental Australia for the first time. These events amply illustrate the potential threat of JEV to US health security. Susceptible indigenous mosquito vectors, birds, feral and domestic pigs, and possibly bats, constitute the receptive ecological ingredients for the spread of JEV in the US. Fortunately, unlike the other virus invaders mentioned above, an inactivated whole virus JE vaccine (IXIARO®) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for human use in advance of a public health emergency, but there is no veterinary vaccine. This paper describes the risks and potential consequences of the introduction of JEV into the US, the need to integrate planning for such an event in public health policy, and the requirement for additional countermeasures, including antiviral drugs and an improved single dose vaccine that elicits durable immunity in both humans and livestock.

Complete genome of Aedes japonicus narnavirus from wild caught mosquitoes collected in Ohio, USA

Narnaviruses infect several genera of mosquitoes including Culex and Aedes . The narnavirus genome is a positive, single stranded RNA encoding an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene. The partial genome of a narnavirus identified in wild Aedes japonicus mosquitoes collected in Wooster, Ohio, USA was obtained using metagenomic analyses. Rapid amplification of 5'-cDNA ends (RACE) and Sanger sequencing were used to obtain the remaining genomic sequence of this strain. The complete genome is composed of 3153 nucleotides and has 98.4% and 99.1% nucleotide sequence identity with Aedes japonicus narnavirus genomes identified in Netherlands and Japan.