Blood Feeding Patterns of Japanese Encephalitis Vectors-How Zoophilic Mosquitoes Feed on Humans

Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) is the most frequent cause of mosquito-borne encephalitis in Asian countries. Several culicine species are potential vectors those are not anthropophilic but are zoophilic. Primary JEV vectors feed mainly on cow (dead end host for JEV), pig (amplifying host), and occasionally on human (dead end host). To find out determinant factors of blood feeding pattern is critical to understand transmission cycle of the disease. We review primary JEV vector blood feeing characteristics by our experimental and field survey conducted in Asian countries. We present that JEV vectors, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, Cx. vishunui, and Cx. gelidus, have innate preference for cow than pig. Contrary to their preference, observed blood fed ratio of pig was often higher than that in cow in the former two species while the latter species, Cx. gelidus, stick to feed on cow. In a village where people live with many kinds of animal in their compound, the mosquito abundance was the most affected by cattle abundance not by other animals. We studied micro distribution of pre-biting mosquitoes around a cow to find many of them staying in vicinity of the host. We detected significant spatial autocorrelation at lag distance less than 20m in the Cx. vishnui subgroup meaning that they judge preferable host abundance at the spatial scale. We suggest costless control program against JEV vector by village and city planning. Nobuko Tuno1*, Yoshio Tsuda2 and Masahiro Takagi3 1Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Japan 2Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan 3Department of Vector Ecology and Environment, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan *Corresponding author: Nobuko Tuno, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Japan, Email: [email protected] Published Date: June 02, 2016