Dear Good Vector Community Members,

Not quite malaria and aedes-borne diseases, but still of interest to vector control practitioners! Below please see a link to a very recent article published in Parasitology Today on Culex vishnui, the main vector of Japanese encephalitis virus. Happy reading!

Culex vishnui

Culex vishnui is one of the main vectors of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). This virus is of major medical importance in 24 countries of the Asia-Pacific region and can lead to severe encephalitis with sequels and deaths, especially in children. Cx. vishnui often accounts for a significant proportion of the Culicidae fauna, locally reported as the predominant species with a relative abundance of up to 80%. Females prefer to feed on pigs (JEV-amplifying hosts) and birds (JEV reservoir), and readily on humans. Cx. vishnui shares human habitats and can transmit at least 13 other arboviruses of medical and veterinary importance. Their preferred breeding sites are rice fields and ponds, and their dynamics are closely related to the phases of rice growth. In the Asia-Pacific region, rice fields are often located at the intersection of human dwellings and natural areas. As a consequence, these zoo-anthropophilic mosquitoes can act as bridge vectors transmitting pathogens through their blood-feeding from wild animals to humans.

Another interesting publication on Cx. vishnui by Pierre-Olivier Maquart and Sébastien Boyer is here