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COVID-19 Not Spread By Mosquitoes
Scientific Inquirer
A new study by Kansas State University
researchers is the first to confirm that SARS-CoV-2 cannot be transmitted to
people by mosquitoes.
Stephen Higgs, associate vice president for research
and director of the university’s Biosecurity Research Institute, or BRI,
together with colleagues from the BRI and the College of Veterinary Medicine
had the findings published by Scientific Reports.
The article, “SARS-CoV-2
failure to infect or replicate in mosquitoes: an extreme challenge,”
details the study’s findings, which provide the first experimental
investigation on the capacity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19
disease, to infect and be transmitted by mosquitoes.
“While the World
Health Organization has definitively stated that mosquitoes cannot transmit the
virus, our study is the first to provide conclusive data supporting the
theory,”
said Higgs, Peine professor of biosecurity and university distinguished
professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology.
The study, which was done at the BRI, a
biosecurity level-3 facility, ultimately found that the virus is unable to
replicate in three common and widely distributed species of mosquitoes — Aedes
aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus — and therefore cannot be
transmitted to humans.
“I am proud of the
work we are doing at K-State to learn as much as we can about this and other
dangerous pathogens,”
said Higgs.
“This work was
possible because of the unique capabilities of the BRI and the dedicated BRI
and institutional staff.”
Colleagues involved with the study include
Yan-Jang Huang, research assistant professor of diagnostic medicine and
pathobiology; Dana Vanlandingham, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology;
Ashley Bilyeu and Haelea Sharp, research assistants in diagnostic medicine and
pathobiology; and Susan Hettenbach, research assistant at the BRI.
Researchers at the BRI have completed four
additional studies on COVID-19 since March and this is the first peer-reviewed
publication based on SARS-CoV-2 experiments wholly conducted at K-State.
Research at the Biosecurity Research
Institute has been ongoing with other animal pathogens that can be transmitted
from animals to people, including Rift Valley fever and Japanese encephalitis,
as well as diseases that could devastate America’s food supply, such as African
swine fever and classical swine fever.
The research was in part supported by the
National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility Transition Fund provided by the state of
Kansas.
“We have remarkable
talent and capabilities working within our research and training facility at
the BRI,”
said Peter Dorhout, K-State vice president for research.
“The BRI is one of
the critical anchor facilities in the North Campus Corridor, which serves as
our growing research and development space for private sector and government
agency partnerships with K-State.”
The
Scientific Inquirer
is dedicated to exploring the junction where science and life meet, whether
it’s in the lab or the studio or the diamond. There’s science everywhere and
it’s amazing.
https://scientificinquirer.com/2020/07/17/covid-19-not-spread-by-mosquitoes-study/
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