A new study by Kansas State University researchers confirms that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, cannot be transmitted to people by mosquitoes.
According to a release from K-State Friday, Biosecurity Research Institute Director Dr. Stephen Higgs and colleagues from the BRI and College of Veterinary Medicine had the findings published Friday by Nature Scientific Reports.
The article, linked here, details the study’s findings, the first experimental investigation on the capacity of SARS-CoV-2.
Higgs says the World Health Organization has definitively stated that mosquitoes cannot transmit the virus, but adds BRI’s study is the first to provide conclusive data supporting the theory.
The study, which was done at the BRI, a biosecurity level-3 facility, ultimately found that the virus is unable to replicate in three common and widely distributed species of mosquitoes and therefore cannot be transmitted to humans.
Four additional studies on COVID-19 have been completed by BRI researchers since March and this is the first peer-reviewed publication based on SARS-CoV-2 experiments wholly conducted at K-State.
