Ecological studies on Japanese encephalitis virus. Results of investigations in the Nagasaki area, Japan, in 1968.

A serial survey on the ecology of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus was made in 1968. Virus isolation was negative from 848 hibernated females of Culex tritaeniorhynchus collected in March to early May. In mid May, when newly emerged females appeared, and thereafter, attempts to isolate the virus were continued, but it was July 23 that the first isolation was made. A strain of JE virus was isolated each from C. pseudovishnui in early August and from Aedes vexans nipponii in late July. Eight other species of mosquitoes were negative for JE virus throughout the year. The pigs susceptible to JE virus were exposed in nature to mosquitoes including hibernated females of C. tritaeniorhynchus in spring without detecting the rise in hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody in their sera. Continuing the exposure to mosquitoes, the HI antibody was detected only after early August. The number of human cases was smaller than in any of the previous three years. One of the reasons is considered to be that the number of vector mosquitoes was smaller at the time of the epizootic in pigs.