Dr. Stephanie Richards contributed an article titled “The Status of Potential Zika Virus Vectors in the U.S.” on the Syngenta newsletter.  In this article, she explained that not all mosquitoes can become infected with and transmit viruses, and that vector capacity for Zika depends, in part, on various factors such as the virus incubation period, mosquito-to-human ratio, mosquito survival rate and mosquitoes’ inclination to bite humans or other animals, infecting virus strain characteristics, availability and mobility of reservoir hosts, environmental temperature, and mosquito immune response.  Dr. Richards also enumerated several mosquito species and identified whether they are competent or incompetent Zika vectors based on research findings.

Read the full article at: The Status of Potential Zika Virus Vectors in the U.S.