Decrease of vector mosquitoes of bancroftian filariasis in a village on Fukue Island, Nagasaki, southwestern Japan

Abstract: In 1994, mosquitoes were collected by the human bait method and by a suction tube at cowsheds in a village, Nagasaki prefecture, where bancroftian filariasis was formerly endemic (microfilaria positive rate was 14.0 % in 1961) but all inhabitants became free of microfilariae by the control of vector mosquitoes carried out from 1962 to 1971. The abundance of mosquitoes collected in 1994 was compared with that in 1961 in previously published report. A remarkable decrease of the principal vector mosquito, Culex pipiens pallens, was noted from 1961 to 1994, and it was considered that the risk of filariasis infection became negligible. key words: vector, mosquitoes, filariasis, Wuchereria bancrofti, Nagasaki.