[Isolation of viruses from rodents in Senegal (1983-1985). Description of a new poxvirus]. / Isolement de virus à partir de rongeurs au Sénégal (1983-1985). Description d'un nouveau poxvirus.

A total of 1,397 rodents of 7 different species were collected in the major vegetative zones of Senegal. Organ pools from rodents were inoculated into suckling-mice. Thirty-five viral strains, representing 5 viruses, were isolated. The 5 viral types recovered in the present survey comprise: Bandia (23 strains), Saboya (7), Salanga (3), Gabek Forest (1) and a new poxvirus (AnD 42332) for which the name of Fadiga is proposed. This virus was isolated from a Mastomys sp collected in eastern Senegal. Antigenic relations were established by complement fixation test with Salanga virus; its distinctness was determined by neutralisation test. Our data are discussed with compiled informations on the current status of rodent viral isolations in West and Central Africa.

Yellow fever in the Gambia, 1978--1979: entomological aspects and epidemiological correlations.

An entomological survey was conducted in the Gambia in January 1979, during the last phase of a yellow fever (YF) outbreak which began during the previous rainy season. In the dry conditions which prevailed in January, Aedes aegypti was the only YF vector present. Two YF virus strains were isolated from females of this mosquito species caught in a village of western Gambia, where active human cases were documented. The ae. aegypti breeding sites were exclusively of the domestic type. Larval indices varied greatly from place to place, but generally appeared to correlate with the incidence of disease. A better understanding of the conditions that prevailed at the onset and during the early phase of the epidemic will require further entomological investigations. Nevertheless, it appears probable that initial transmission as by sylvatic vectors such as the Ae. furcifer-taylori group and possibly others such as Ae. luteocephalus, Ae. metallicus, and Ae. vittatus. As the outbreak progressed, interhuman transmission by Ae. aegypti also occurred, and this mixed epidemiological pattern later gave way to transmission by Ae. aegypti only when sylvatic vector populations declined in the dry season. We speculate that a prolongation of the rainy season during 1976--1978 was important in the origin of the outbreak. The relationship of this epidemic to the established focus of sylvatic YF in southeastern Senegal is discussed. The Gambian outbreak is considered the result of a recent northwesterly extension of the YF Emergence Zone.

[Isolation of the yellow fever virus from an egg-cluster and the larvae of the tick Amblyomma variegatum]. / Isolement du virus de la fièvre jaune à partir de la ponte et de larves d'une tique Amblyomma variegatum.

The yellow fever virus is isolated in natura from eggs of a Tick Amblyomma variegatum. It is then isolated from larvae issued from the same egg-cluster and also from blood of a monkey bitten by larvae of the same origin. It is reported that the same virus has been previously obtained from adults of the same species of Tick. An acarine appears for the first time as a sylvatic vector and reservoir (at least temporary) of yellow fever.

[Isolation in east Senegal of a yellow fever virus strain from a pool of Aedes belonging to the subgenus Diceromyia]. / Isolement au Sénégal oriental d'une souche de virus amaril à partir d'un lot d'Aedes du sous-genre Diceromyia.

During an epidemiological survey of yellow fever in Eastern Senegal, one strain of yellow fever virus was isolated in December 1976 from wild Mosquitoes. This first isolate obtained in nature from Aedes subgenus Diceromyia shows the primordial part these vectors may have in the area studied. It corroborates the existence of a selvatic focus of yellow fever in this region. It also gives information on the transmission cycle in a dry area.

[Isolation of a strain of Mokola virus in Cameroon (author's transl)]. / Isolement d'une souche de virus Mokola au Cameroun.

A strain of Mokola virus has been isolated in Cameroon from a shrew (Crocidura sp.). In Nigeria, where the virus was isolated for the first time, two human cases with one death were reported. The possibility of transmission of this virus by the bite of an arthropod is discussed.

[Long-term infection of a cell culture from newborn mouse brain with the FNV strain of yellow fever virus (author's transl)]. / Infection a long terme d'une culture de cerveau de souriceau par la souche francaise neurotrope du virus amaril.

A cell culture from brains of one day old mice was infected with a high multiplicity of the French neurotropic strain of yellow fever virus (FNV); the infected cell culture produced and released infectious FNV for more than 180 days post-inoculation with titres between 10(0.6) and 10(6.4) PFU/ml. The cell sheet exhibited some rare plaques of round cells with a slow centrifugal extension; the destruction of the cell sheet was not complete before 200 days post-inoculation.

[Isolation of the Lagos-bat virus in the Central African Republic]. / Isolement du virus Lagos-bat en Empire Centrafricain.

The second reported isolate of Lagos-bat virus has been obtained from bats Micropterus pusillus caught in 1974 in the Central African Empire, thus extending the geographic area of this virus and adding another species of vertebrate host among its reservoirs.