Figure 6. Chick viremia impacts survival of bloodfed Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes.

(A–B) Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes that fed upon WNV-spiked blood from a membrane feeder (2 replicates, 50 mosquitoes each replicate), birds previously exposed to mosquito feeding but that remained uninfected (3 birds, 20–30 mosquitoes each replicate), and mosquito-infected birds (7 birds [shown individually], 20–50 mosquitoes each replicate) were housed in individual 50 mL conical tubes.

(A) Mosquito survival was monitored every 2 dpbf.

(B) A curve comparison of mosquito survival was made from each infected bird to the uninfected birds to calculate a log-rank hazard ratio. The hazard ratios of mosquito survival from each comparison were then plotted with the quantity of WNV in the mosquito bloodmeal (WNV GE/mL bird serum). There was a significant positive linear correlation between the hazard ratio and the WNV GE/mL in the bird serum (Pearson r = 0.7919, r² = 0.6271, P = 0.0338).