Document Type : Research Article
Abstract
A new alternative in controlling mosquitos, the arbovirus vectors, has emerged in recent years and commonly called Wolbachia method. Currently, a large trial is still running since 2017 in Indonesia to assess the efficacy of Wolbachiainfected mosquito deployment in reducing dengue incidence in Yogyakarta. Awaiting the trial result before implementing the same method in Bandung, however we could not find any reports on the distribution of natural Wolbachia in urban mosquitos from Indonesia, especially for Culex sp and Aedes sp of Bandung. Therefore, field surveys were conducted at four locations (3 subdistricts) from Bandung City and its surrounding area to screen for the natural mosquito infection status of Wolbachia by PCR and sequencing method. We
found that 83.3% of Bandung-captured Cx. quinquefasciatus were female, and 88.2% of those female were naturally infected with Wolbachia. The infection rate was lower for the male Culex, bringing down the total infection rate of Cx. quinquefasciatus to be around half of the captured mosquitos. However, the results from both female Ae. Aegypti of different locations revealed baffling very weak bands on the agarose gel. As for the infection status of Bandung’s captured Ae. aegypti, it is worth to wait for our further results as well as reports
from other studies. And thus, we opted to keep the inconclusive status of Wolbachia infection in Ae. aegypti from Bandung City
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