Intrathoracic Inoculation of Zika Virus in Aedes aegypti

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are the main vectors of many medically relevant arthropod-borne (arbo) viruses, including Zika (ZIKV), dengue (DENV), and yellow fever (YFV). Vector competence studies with Ae. aegypti often involve challenging mosquitoes with an artificial bloodmeal containing virus and later quantifying viral titer or infectious plaque-forming units (PFU) in various mosquito tissues at relevant time points post-infection. However, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes are known to exhibit midgut infection and escape barriers (MIB and MEB, respectively), which influence the prevalence and titer of a disseminated infection and can introduce unwanted variability into studies analyzing tissues such as the salivary glands. To surmount this challenge, we describe herein a protocol for the intrathoracic inoculation of ZIKV in Ae. aegypti. This method bypasses the midgut, which leads to a more rapid and higher proportion of disseminated infections in comparison to oral challenge, and mosquitoes become infected with a consistent dose of virus. Our protocol is advantageous for studies that need a large sample size of infected mosquitoes, need to bypass the midgut, or are analyzing salivary gland infection or escape barriers.