BIOSAFETY OF AN EXPERIMENTALLY PROVEN MOSQUITO VECTOR PATHOGEN, SPIROPLASMA-TAIWANENSE

A candidate biocontrol agent of mosquito vectors, Spiroplasma taiwanen se, was demonstrated not to persist (31 days post-inoculation) or to r educe body weight of intra-cerebrally inoculated suckling Swiss mice o r suckling Sprague-Dawley rats. It did not multiply or persist in mous e neuroblastoma 2A cells in vitro, nor did it reduce survival of the d omestic honey bee, Apis mellifera caucasica (a beneficial insect speci es). Preparations of this organism used throughout this study were ver ified for pathogenicity in female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. S. taiwane nse, originally isolated from mosquitoes, may thus prove to possess pa thogenicity restricted to mosquitoes. S. melliferum was used as a posi tive control for intra-cerebral re-isolation and pathogenicity in mice , rats and mouse neuroblastoma cells.