Mosquito surveillance in the Demilitarized Zone, Republic of Korea, during an outbreak of Plasmodium vivax malaria in 1996 and 1997.

Since 1993, more than 2,000 cases of vivax malaria have occurred in the Republic of Korea in an epidemic that ended nearly 20 malaria-free years. Most malaria has occurred in the northwestern part of the country, mainly affecting Korean military personnel. As a part of an operational surveillance effort, we sampled mosquitoes in and near the Demilitarized Zone (Paju County, Kyonggi Province) during the last 2 wk of July in 1996 and from May 15 to September 10 in 1997. The 1st year, landing collections were done at 5 different sites; the 2nd year, carbon-dioxide-baited light traps at 5 sites, larval collections in 10 adjacent fields, and landing collections at 1 site in the Demilitarized Zone were performed weekly. Of 17 species collected, Anopheles sinensis was consistently the most abundant mosquito, comprising 79-96% of mosquitoes. The diel pattern of biting by An. sinensis varied by location and season, with the majority of individuals biting late at night during warm weather (>20 degrees C) and early at night during cool weather. In contrast, Aedes vexans nipponii (the 2nd most abundant species) bit in the greatest numbers at the same time all season, from 2000 to 2300 h. Among the correlates with abundance of An. sinensis were average nighttime temperature 2 wk previous to the night in question, wind late at night (negatively correlated), and apparent size of the moon (negatively correlated). The data showed that the exact number of An. sinensis biting could not be estimated from numbers collected in carbon-dioxide-baited light traps. On the other hand, a threshold of 15 An. sinensis per trap night corresponded (88% accuracy) to a threshold of 12 mosquitoes biting 2 adjacent collectors per night. Larval collections were also significantly correlated with landing collections, despite inexact sampling methods and separation of the larval habitat from the site where landing collections were performed. Operational entomology assets using nighttime temperature records, carbon-dioxide-baited light traps, and larval collections should be able to target their efforts in Korea more efficiently.