STUDIES ON JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS-VIRUS INFECTION OF REPTILES .2. ROLE OF LIZARDS ON HIBERNATION OF JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS-VIRUS

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 53  (2) , 125-134
Abstract
The role of lizards as overwintering hosts of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was investigated. Two spp. of lizards, Takydromus tachydromoides and Eumeces latiscutatus, 2 spp. of mosquitoes, Culex pipiens fatigans and C. p. pallens, and 2 strains of JEV, JaGAr# 01 and JaGAr 19461, were used. Transmission of JEV from infected mosquitoes to uninfected lizards and from infected lizards to normal mice by the bite of mosquitoes was demonstrated. C. pipiens group mosquitoes fed readily on lizards as compared to C. tritaeniorhynchus, the primary vector of JEV in Japan. Simulated hibernation of JEV in lizards was carried out under indoor and outdoor conditions. In the outdoor hibernation, lizards were injected with JEV on Oct. 14, 1968, entered in hibernation on Oct. 19 and recovered from hibernation on April 10, 1969. Viremias were demonstrated in the lizards for a few weeks in late April. JEV isolation and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody detection were attempted from blood samples of field-caught reptiles, 7 spp. of snakes and 3 spp. of lizards, and of amphibians, 2 spp. of frogs. HI antibody against the JEV was found at a rate of 14.3% from E. latiscutatus and 4.0% from T. tachydromoides: JEV was not isolated from the blood samples of these cold-blooded animals. The roles of lizards as overwintering hosts of JEV were discussed.