PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Blanka Tesla
AU  - Leah R. Demakovsky
AU  - Hannah S. Packiam
AU  - Erin A. Mordecai
AU  - Américo D. Rodríguez
AU  - Matthew H. Bonds
AU  - Melinda A. Brindley
AU  - Courtney C. Murdock
TI  - Estimating the effects of variation in viremia on mosquito susceptibility, infectiousness, and <em>R<sub>0</sub></em> of Zika in <em>Aedes aegypti</em>
AID  - 10.1101/221572
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 221572
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/17/221572.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/17/221572.full
AB  - Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Like most viral infections, ZIKV viremia varies over several orders of magnitude, with unknown consequences for transmission. To determine the effect of viral concentration on ZIKV transmission risk, we exposed field-derived Ae. aegypti mosquitoes to four doses (103, 104, 105, 106 PFU/mL) representative of potential variation in the field. We demonstrate that increasing ZIKV dose in the blood-meal significantly increases the probability of mosquitoes becoming infected and infectious, as well as the rate at which virus spreads to the saliva, but found no effect on dissemination efficiency or mosquito mortality. We also demonstrate that determining infection using RT-qPCR approaches rather than plaque assays potentially over-estimates key pathogen parameters, including the time at which mosquitoes become infectious and viral burden. Finally, using these data to parameterize an R0 model, we demonstrate that variation in viremia substantially affects transmission risk.