Culex pipiens complex는 West Nile virus의 주요 매개체이며, 대한민국에는 Cx. pipiens pallens와 Cx. pipiens f. molestus가 서식한다고 알려져 있다. 그러나 현재까지 대한민국에서 진행된 Culex pipiens complex의 살충제 관련 실험은 종 수준 이하의 단계에서 비교가 이루어지지 않고 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 대한민국의 13개 지역에 서 Culex pipiens complex를 채집하였고, 분자 마커를 이용해 종 수준 이하 단계까지 분류를 진행한 뒤 각 분류군의 Acetylcholinesterase-1(Ace-1)와 Voltage-gated sodium channel(Vgsc) 유전자에 대한 저항성 돌연변이 존재 유무를 확인하였다. Ace-1 영역 확인 결과, Cx. pipiens f. molestus에서는 저항성이 확인되지 않았으며, 목포에서 채집된 Cx. pipiens pallens 1개체에서 저항성 개체가 발견되었다. Vgsc 영역에서는 저항성 유전형질을 보유한 개체가 Cx. pipiens pallens와 Cx. pipiens f. molestus에서 모두 발견되었으며, 다양한 지역에서 서로 다른 비율로 존재하는 것을 확인하였다. 본 조사 결과는 향후 대한민국에 서식하는 Culex pipiens complex의 효율적인 방제를 위한 기초자료로 활용될 수 있을 것이다.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a mosquito-borne pathogen, is the most important cause of viral encephalitis worldwide. The major vector mosquito of this virus, known as Culex tritaeniorynchus, is mainly live in paddy rice field in Korea. So Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a disease of rural areas. During urbanization, rice cultivated land has decreased also resulting the number of JE patients has decreased. However, recent outbreak of JE in Korea 2010, the patients distribution was not related with that of the mosquito. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate involving other mosquito species in the transmission of JEV. Five localities, JE reported in 5 years, have been selected to collect mosquitoes according their habitats (mountain, swap, cow shed, and downtown area) in 2012. Total 22,774 collected mosquitoes were pooled by species, date and site of collection. Of the 1,282 pools, eight (five were from Culex orientalis, one from Culex pipiens complex, and two from Aedes vexans) were found positive for flavivirus RNA in SYBR Green I-based real-time RT-PCR assay. The results of sequences blasting on NCBI showed that the flaviviruses from Cx. orientalis and Cx. pipiens complex were identified as JEV genotype V.

Culex pipiens complex larvae were found at the septic tanks in Susan and Ulsan cities located in South-eastern area of Korean peninsula. The larvae were collected in 25, 35 and 75 septic tanks out of 3,527, 622 and 1,111 septic tanks which the breeding rates were averages of 0.7%, 5.6% and 6.8% in Susan from January to May, 2003, Susan from February to March, 2004, and Ulsan from January to April, 2005, respectively. The average numbers of the mosquitoes in the tanks were 38.8, 14.9 and 13.7 larvae/dip with a 355-㎖ dipper. The larval densities were from 25.4 larvae/dip in January to 43.7 larvae/dip in April. 2003 which were not significantly different between them. It was the first report to find mosquito breeding at septic tanks in Republic of Korea. Culex pipiens larvae were found in 6 out of 379 septic tanks at complex buildings (over 2,000㎡ in size) in Ulsan from June to September, 2005, having an average of 1.6% for mosquito breeding rate. The mosquito larvae were collected in 8 and 530 septic tanks out of 210 and 3,729 septic tanks at large (over 300 homes) and small apartments (below 300 homes) with 3.8% and 14.2% of the average breeding rates, respectively. At the septic tanks of private houses for below 50 persons, 708 out of 7,178 septic tanks had Cx. pipiens larvae and pupae with 9.9% of the average breeding rate. Total average of the mosquito breeding rate was 10.9% of the investigated septic tanks of residential buildings in Ulsan. The number of mosquito larvae in the septic tanks were 15 to 75 larvae/dip. The bent net sets of septic tanks prevented from mosquito breeding to the rate of 93.1 %.