Emerg Infect DiseidEmerging Infectious Diseases1080-60401080-6059Centers for Disease Control115855302631746Research ArticleMosquito surveillance for West Nile virus in Connecticut, 2000: isolation from Culex pipiens, Cx. restuans, Cx. salinarius, and Culiseta melanura.AndreadisT. G.theodore.andreadis@po.state.ct.usAndersonJ. F.VossbrinckC. R.Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 123 Huntington Street, New Haven, CT 06504, USA.Jul-Aug200174670674

Fourteen isolations of West Nile (WN) virus were obtained from four mosquito species (Culex pipiens [5], Cx. restuans [4], Cx. salinarius [2], and Culiseta melanura [3]) in statewide surveillance conducted from June through October 2000. Most isolates were obtained from mosquitoes collected in densely populated residential locales in Fairfield and New Haven counties, where the highest rates of dead crow sightings were reported and where WN virus was detected in 1999. Minimum field infection rates per 1,000 mosquitoes ranged from 0.5 to 1.8 (county based) and from 1.3 to 76.9 (site specific). Cx. restuans appears to be important in initiating WN virus transmission among birds in early summer; Cx. pipiens appears to play a greater role in amplifying virus later in the season. Cs. melanura could be important in the circulation of WN virus among birds in sylvan environments; Cx. salinarius is a suspected vector of WN virus to humans and horses.