Virus isolation from wild-caught mosquitoes during a Japanese encephalitis outbreak in Kerala in 1996

Out of 5357 wild-caught mosquitoes in 163 pools tested for virus using antigen capture ELISA and an insect-bioassay (inoculation into Toxorhynchites splendens larvae and identification by IFA using JE virus-specific monoclonal antibody), 16 flavivirus isolations were made of which 12 (75%) were identified as JE virus. Of the 12 JE virus isolations, 7 were from Culex tritaeniorhynchus, 3 from Mansonia uniformis and 1 each from Ma. indiana and Anopheles subpictus. Four isolations from Mansonia species for the first time reported here are noteworthy.