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Armstrong, P.M., Anderson, J.F., Farajollahi, A., Healy, S.P., Unlu, I., Crepeau, T.N., Gaugler, R., Fonseca, D.M., and Andreadis, T.G. 2013. Isolations of Cache Valley virus from Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in New Jersey and evaluation of its role as a regional arbovirus vector. Journal of Medical Entomology. 50(6): 1310-1314.

ABSTRACT
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), is an invasive species and a major pest problem in urban and suburban locales in New Jersey. To assess its potential role as an arbovirus vector, we sampled Ae. albopictus from two New Jersey counties over a 3-yr period and estimated the prevalence of virus infection by Vero cell culture and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays. Three virus isolates were obtained from 34,567 field-collected Ae. albopictus, and all were identified as Cache Valley virus by molecular methods. Ae. albopictus (N
3,138), collected in Mercer County from late July through early September 2011, also were retested for West Nile virus (WNV) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and all were negative. These results corroborate previous findings showing that Ae. albopictus may occasionally acquire Cache Valley virus, a deer associated arbovirus, in nature. In contrast, we did not detect WNV infection in Ae. albopictus despite concurrent WNV amplification in this region

Discussion
In the current study, we tested > 34,000 Ae. albopictus from New Jersey over a 3-yr period to evaluate its importance as a regional arbovirus vector. Despite an intensive sampling effort during a period of WNV amplification, only three virus isolations were recovered from this species during 2010 (one from Mercer County and two from Monmouth County). All of the isolates were identified as CVV, and the overall infection rates were < 1 per 1,000 mosquitoes tested.