Experimental transovarial transmission of kyasanur forest disease virus in Haemaphysalis spinigera

Abstract

TRANSOVAJRIAJL passage in ticks has been investigated for several viruses of the tick-borne encephalitis complex. Russian workers have reported that Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus can pass transovarially in Ixodes persulcatus, I. ricinus, Dermacentor silvarum and Haemaphysalis concinna 1. Benda2, working with Ixodes ricinus and the European strain of tick-borne encephalitis in Czechoslovakia, demonstrated transovarial transmission in only 6 per cent of ticks, while Smorodintsev3 in the U.S.S.R. reported that it occurred in 5-25 per cent of ticks. In an investigation confirming transovarial transmission of tick-borne encephalitis virus in I. ricinus, Rehacek4 found that it occurred in 2 per cent of ticks infected by feeding and in 20 per cent of ticks infected by inoculation after feeding. Laboratory studies with a third member of the complex, Kyasanur forest disease virus, and its vector Haemaphysalis spinigera are reported here. © 1963 Nature Publishing Group.