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KYASANUR FOREST DISEASE

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A Flavivirus causes this fever, which was discovered in 1957 when monkeys were dying in the Kyasanur Forest of southern India. This was followed by humans also having symptoms and began dying. Since then the disease has been found all around the Kyasanur Forest and is spread by humans and animals moving through the area. The principal vectors are Haemaphysalis spinigera and other species of Haemaphysalis for humans and H. turturis for animals.

Tick larvae feed on birds and small forest rodents, but the nymphs feed on monkeys and humans. Monkeys and probably shrews are believed to be the main amplifying and reservoir hosts. Larger mammals (deer, bison, cattle) coming into close contact with ticks in the forest serve as hosts for adult ticks and maintain large tick populations. There is transstadial and maybe transovarial transmission among the tick vectors (Service 2008).

The epidemiology is affected by changes in human activity, such as deforestation and agriculture that can be followed by changing ecology and disease outbreaks.

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Key References: <medvet.ref.htm> <Hexapoda>

Matheson, R. 1950. Medical Entomology. Comstock Publ. Co, Inc. 610 p.

Service, M. 2008. Medical Entomology For Students. Cambridge Univ. Press. 289 p

Legner, E. F. 1995. Biological control of Diptera of medical and veterinary importance. J. Vector Ecology 20(1): 59_120.

Legner, E. F. 2000. Biological control of aquatic Diptera. p. 847_870. Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera,

Vol. 1, Science Herald, Budapest. 978 p.