Dengue viruses in Aedes albopictus Skuse from a pineapple plantation in Costa Rica

Abstract

En Costa Rica, Ae. albopictusfue reportado por primera vez en 1998; actualmente, está ampliamente distribuido en el área noreste del país, la vertiente del Caribe y la frontera con Panamá. Las plantas de bromelia, que incluyen piñas (Ananas comosus), ofrecen condiciones que son altamente favorables para la oviposición y el desarrollo larval de Ae. albopictus, por tanto la expansion del dengue se da de una manera más rápida.

Bromeliad plants, which include pineapples (Ananas comosus), offer conditions that are highly favorable for the oviposition and larval development of Ae. albopictus (Eapen et al. 2010). The pineapple industry is an important economic activity in Costa Rica, and there are large plantations in several areas of the country including the northeast and the Caribbean slope. In August 2012, local vector control personnel attended to a complaint of a high abundance of mosquitoes close to an organic pineapple plantation in the Caribbean region, specifically in the district of La Virgen, Sarapiquí County, Province of Heredia. Mosquitoes were identified preliminarily as Aedes albopictus. Considering that this is a dengue endemic area, the presence of dengue virus was evaluated in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes collected in proximity to this organic pineapple plantation.