Effect of the anesthetizing agent triethylamine on western equine encephalomyelitis and St. Louis encephalitis viral titers in mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae).

Triethylamine (TEA) is a chemical compound that provides an effective means to anesthetize mosquitoes. The mosquitoes remain alive but are incapacitated for several hours; they do not recover following treatment. There was no effect on the titers of infectious virus recovered from western equine encephalomyelitis or St. Louis encephalitis virus-infected Culex tarsalis Coquillett and Aedes dorsalis (Meigen) that were anesthetized with TEA prior to storage at -70 degrees C. Furthermore, TEA had no effect on isoenzyme profiles of uninfected Cx. tarsalis.