Zika Virus Propagation and Strain Characterization

Viral strains used were provided by WHO Collaborating Center for arboviruses and viral hemorrhagic fever (CRORA) at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar. ZIKV and other flaviviruses strains isolated from mosquitoes and non-human vertebrates used in this study are described in Tables 1 and 2. Viral stocks were prepared by inoculating viral strains into AP 61 monolayer continuous cell lines in Leibovitz 15 (L-15) growth medium (GibcoBRL, Grand Island, NY, USA) supplemented with 5% foetal bovine serum (FBS) (GibcoBRL, Grand Island, NY, USA), 10% tryptose phosphate, penicillin-streptomycin and fungizone (Sigma, Gmbh, Germany). After 7 days of propagation, viral infection was tested by an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using specific hyperimmune mouse ascitic fluids as previously described [23 (link)] and supernatants from infected cells were collected as stocks for virus RNA isolation. ZIKV stocks were used for sequencing and evaluation of the sensitivity of the rRT-PCR assay. Other flaviviruses were used to evaluate the specificity of the assay.