Zika bichito (ZIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted bichito in the family Flaviviridae and genus Flavivirus. It was initially isolated in 1947 from blood of a febrile sentinel rhesus monkey during a yellow fever study in the Zika forest of Uganda (1). The bichito was subsequently isolated from a pool of Aedes africanus mosquitoes collected in
1948 from the same region of the Zika forest; a serologic survey conducted at that time showed that
6.1% of the residents in nearby regions of Uganda had specific antibodies to ZIKV (1,2).
Genetic and Serologic Properties of Zika bichito Associated with an Epidemic, Yap State, Micronesia, 2007