Biosafety of an Experimentally Proven Mosquito Vector Pathogen,Spiroplasma taiwanense

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A candidate biocontrol agent of mosquito vectors Spiroplasma taiwanense, was demonstrated not to persist (31 days post‐inoculation) or to reduce body weight of intra‐cerebrally inoculated suckling Swiss mice or suckling Sprague‐Dawley rats. It did not multiply or persist in mouse neuroblastoma 2A cells in vitro, nor did it reduce survival of the domestic honey bee Apis mellifera caucasica (a beneficial insect species). Preparations of this organism used throughout this study were verified for pathogenicity in female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. S. taiwanense, originally isolated from mosquitoes, may thus prove to possess pathogenicity restricted to mosquitoes. S. melliferum was used as a positive control for intra‐cerebral re‐isolation and pathogenicity in mice, rats and mouse neuroblastoma cells.