Fig 4. Aedes albopictus have increased vector competence for ZIKV strains with ancestral NS1.
Mosquitoes were fed a blood meal with 6.6 to 7.2 log10 PFU/mL of various strains of ZIKV and were held for 7 or 14 days. Sample sizes for individual ZIKV strains and timepoints ranged from 24–60 for Ae. albopictus and 28–87 for Ae. aegypti. Infection, dissemination and transmission rates were determined by the number of qRT-PCR positive bodies, legs and salivary secretions, respectively. Statistically significant differences in infection rates (*) and transmission rates (δ) among exposed mosquitoes were identified for NS1 mutants relative to ZIKV WTic in Ae. albopictus (Fisher’s exact test, p<0.05).