Real time molecular detection of Chikungunya and dengue virus in the female Aedes mosquitoes collected in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.

Monsoon favors the breeding sites of many mosquito borne viral vectors resulting in increased outbreaks of vector borne infections, such as Chikungunya and dengue infections in the post monsoon period. Hence a pre-monsoon surveillance study of competent vectors carrying Chikungunya and dengue virus would help in better management of vectors and infections. Thus a surveillance study was carried out in Chennai before the onset of monsoon to study the distribution of competent vectors and detection of Chikungunya and dengue virus in female Aedes mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were collected from north, south, east and west zone of Chennai during March to July 2014. Chikungunya (CHIKV) and Dengue virus (DENV) were detected from the collected mosquitoes by Reverse Transcription Real time PCR (RT-PCR) followed by virus isolation in Vero cells. The most predominant species was Culex quinquefasciatis followed by Culex pipiens in the premonsoon period in our study. Viral infection rate during March to July (Premonsoon period) with respect to CHIKV and DENV virus were 0.456. The central zones of Chennai were highly found to inhabit the Aedes species in comparison to other zones surveyed during the premonsoon period. Viral infection rate of CHIKV and DENV were very low in female Aedes mosquitoes during the Pre-Monsoon period in Chennai.