Aino virus, a new a new member of simbu group of arbovirus from mosquitoes in Japan.

Abstract

Three strains of non-Japanese encephalitis virus were isolated from mosquitoes caught in mid-September, 1964, in Aino town, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. Two of them were recovered from pools of Culex tritaeniorhynchus and one from a mixed pool of Culex pipiens and Culex pseudovishnui. All of these viruses were shown to be fatal to the adult mouse by intracerebral inoculation, ether sensitive, inactivated by desoxycholate and not precipitated with protamine sulfate. These characteristics of the viruses, therefore, are in good accord with those of arbovirus.Since viral hemagglutinin could not be detected by sucrose-aceton extraction of the infected suckling mouse brain, immunological identification of the viruses was achieved by the complement fixation test. As a result, these viruses were antigenically alike and furthermore turned out to be a new member of Simbu group of arbovirus. It is proposed to name this new virus Aino.Later, in 1965 and 1966 attempts to reisolate the virus from mosquitoes collected in Nagasaki area were unsuccessful.