Detection of the Schmallenberg virus in nulliparous Culicoides obsoletus/scoticus complex and C. punctatus-The possibility of transovarial virus transmission in the midge population and of a new vector

The arthropod-borne Schmallenberg virus (SBV) emerged in Europe in the late summer/autumn of 2011. SBV spread across the continent until 2012. This paper presents SBV detection in female Culicoides spp. caught in UV traps located in 23 different locations in Poland. The midges were divided into pools containing 20.5 individual insects on average according to species and parity status. The study was based on duplex real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) for the detection of the SBV S segment and culicoid 18S gene fragments. Forty-four out of 402 midge pools tested (10.9%) were found to be positive for the presence of viral RNA. The SBV positive Culicoides came from 10 traps spread randomly across the country and were collected between August and October 2012. The timing of the SBV positive midge collections and the locations of the traps corresponded to the epizootic situation of SBV in ruminants. SBV RNA was most frequently identified in gravid midges (36.4%), while in nulliparous, blood-fed and parous midges the percentages were 10.8% 13.0% and 8.1%, respectively. The majority (82%) of SBV positive pools belonged to Culicoides obsoletus/scoticus complex; however, viral RNA was also found in 8 out of the 149 (5.4%) Culicoides punctatus pools tested. While no statistical differences in the Ct values between different parity groups were found, the bimodal distribution observed at the Ct frequency plots suggested active SBV replication, especially in parous and gravid midge females, and sub-transmissible infection in nulliparous and blood-fed insects. The most important findings included identification of C. punctatus as a new possible vector of SBV and the recovery of viral RNA from the nulliparous females which may suggest transovarial transmission in C. obsoletus/scoticus complex and C. punctatus.