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Date: Dec 6, 2002
Posted by: Dominick Ninivaggi (Dominick.Ninivaggi@co.suffolk.ny.us)

The role of Culex pipiens as a human transmitter remains unclear. They generally prefer birds, but will bite people, and WNV occurs in humans in our county in places where Cx. pipiens is virtually the only mosquito we pick up. A complicating issue is the fact that Ochlerotatus japonicus also breeds in catch basins. This species is an efficient transmitter, but not especially aggressive, and little is known about its biting habits in the US. In adddition, japonicus is difficult to sample, so its numbers could be underestimated. We are not sure if we are seeing Cx. pipiens transmission or transmision by cryptic populations of japonicus. In general, the subject of bridge vectors remains a very active research topic, and there are many people working on various aspects of it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Mendenhall [mailto:mosqboy@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 4:08 PM
To: WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Catch Basins

I was curious if anyone knew of any studies or literature depicting correlations between presence of Culex with and without catch basin treatments. Or is there information on human cases of WNV clinical manifestations corresponding to treatment (or lack thereof) of catch basins? Also, what are the primary bridge vectors across the Eastern seaboard, is there thought that Culex may be involved in this aspect?

Thanks in advance for your help

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