Survival of avian H5N1 influenza A viruses in Calliphora nigribarbis (Diptera: Calliphoridae).
In a previous study, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses were isolated from blow flies collected at the Tamba Town of Kyoto prefecture during the outbreak period in March 2004. In this study, we carried out virus exposure experiments to investigate whether the H5N1 virus would survive in a blow fly, Calliphora nigribarbis. The virus exposure experiments showed that the H5N1 influenza virus was isolated from the crop and intestine of C. nigribarbis for at least 24 h, and the viruses remained viable with titers ranging from 0.5 to 4.63 TCID50. This result suggests that C. nigribarbis could possibly transport the H5N1 virus over a distance of 2 km, which is the distance they can migrate within 24 h.
Sawabe
Kyoko
K
Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan. sawabe@nih.go.jp
Tanabayashi
Kiyoshi
K
Hotta
Akitoyo
A
Hoshino
Keita
K
Isawa
Haruhiko
H
Sasaki
Toshinori
T
Yamada
Akio
A
Kurahashi
Hiromu
H
Shudo
Chieko
C
Kobayashi
Mutsuo
M
D000818:Animals; D004175:Diptera / Q000821:virology*; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000821:virology*; D007422:Intestines / Q000821:virology; D013997:Time Factors; D014779:Virus Replication