Temporal variation in the susceptibility of Culex tritaeniorhynchus (Diptera: Culicidae) to Japanese encephalitis virus in an endemic area of Tamil Nadu, South India.

The study area, Cuddalore, is one of the endemic districts for Japanese encephalitis (JE) in southern India and there is a strong seasonality in JE case incidence, as well as JE virus (JEV) infection in the principal vector Culex (Culex) tritaeniorhynchus Giles. In a longitudinal 3-year study (July 2003 to June 2006), we determined the susceptibility of wild-caught female Cx. tritaeniorhynchus for JEV infection over several seasons from several villages.