THE TITRATION OF YELLOW FEVER VIRUS IN STEGOMYIA MOSQUITOES.
Titrations were made of yellow fever virus in stegomyia mosquitoes, using rhesus monkeys as test animals. It was found that: (a) The average mosquito immediately after engorging on highly infectious blood contained between 1 and 2 million lethal doses of virus. The titer of freshly ingested blood was as high as 1 billion lethal doses of virus per cubic centimeter. (b) During the fortnight succeeding a meal on infectious blood there occurred a reduction of titratable virus to not more than 1 per cent of that present in the freshly fed insects. (c) The titer was somewhat higher at later periods. This rise in titer signified possibly not a multiplication, but merely an increase of extracellular virus and of that easily freed by grinding to a titratable form. (d) At no later stage did the quantity of titratable virus equal that demonstrable in freshly fed insects.
Yellow Fever Laboratory of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation at Bahia, Brazil.
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Davis
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Frobisher
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Lloyd