Integrated mosquito management in rice field in China

Abstract

Rice cultivation is important in China with over 29.33 million hm2 of rice fields, producing 28.9% of rice yields worldwide. Rice fields are mass breeding sites for mosquitoes with approximately 40 mosquito species found breeding amongst them. Anopheles sinensis, Anopheles lesteri, and Culex tritaeniorhynchus are the three main species that are found breeding in rice fields. An. sinensis and An. lesteri are important vectors of malaria in flat areas of China, and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus is a main vector of Japanese B encephalitis. This review provides the principles of mosquito control used to target the species of mosquitoes breeding in rice fields, as well as some main approaches that have been tested and implemented for mosquito control in the past 70 years. The irrigation management of rice fields is included, such as intermittent irrigation, wet irrigation, controlled irrigation, and rotation of rice fields and dry fields. Biocontrol measures and agents, including rice-fish coculture, Azolla, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti), and Bacillus sphaericus, for mosquito control are discussed. These control methods benefit the prevention and control of mosquito-borne disease, especially malaria elimination in China.