Flying Syringes for Emerging Enzootic Virus Screening: Proof of Concept for the Development of Noninvasive Xenosurveillance Tools Based on Tsetse Flies

Pathogen transfers between wild and domestic animals and between animals and humans are increasing. Their dramatic consequences for public and veterinary health as well as for conservation call for innovative and user-friendly methods for pathogen surveillance in wildlife. Xenosurveillance, a method based on the use of invertebrates (e.g., mosquitoes, hematophagous flies, leeches, cadaveric arthropods) to sample animal tissues (e.g., blood) and the associated pathogens, is one of these tools. Previously, we demonstrated that hematophagous flies, such as tsetse flies, could be useful to detect and identify the etiological agents of malaria in a diverse range of mammals in Gabon. However, we did not assess whether this method can be also used to detect viruses. In the present study, we experimentally fed tsetse flies (Glossina fuscipes fuscipes) rabbit blood containing different viruses of medical or veterinary importance (Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, African swine fever, Bluetongue, and peste des petits ruminants viruses). Then, we used quantitative PCR (i) to determine for how long viral nucleic acid fragments remained detectable in the tsetse midgut during blood digestion and (ii) to compare two blood meal preservation methods (i.e., FTA cards and RNAlater solution) tested using tsetse flies engorged with blood and dengue-2 virus. All viruses remained detectable for 6 days after feeding, although the detection probability significantly decreased over time. FTA cards and RNAlater solution gave similar results in terms of virus detection. Our results demonstrate that xenosurveillance using blood-engorged tsetse flies is a valuable tool to track and survey viruses in wildlife in Sub-Saharan Africa.