Effect of irrigated rice agriculture on Japanese encephalitis, including challenges and opportunities for integrated vector management

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a disease caused by an arbovirus that is spread by marsh birds, amplified by pigs, and mainly transmitted by the bite of infected Culex tritaeniorhynchus mosquitoes. The estimated annual incidence and mortality rates are 30,000–50,000 and 10,000, respectively, and the estimated global burden of JE in 2002 was 709,000 disability-adjusted life years lost. Here, we discuss the contextual determinants of JE, and systematically examine studies assessing the relationship between irrigated rice agriculture and clinical parameters of JE. Estimates of the sizes of the rural population and population in irrigated areas are presented, and trends of the rural population, the rice-irrigated area, and the rice production are analyzed from 1963 to 2003. We find that approximately 1.9 billion people currently live in rural JE-prone areas of the world. Among them 220 million people live in proximity to rice-irrigation schemes. In 2003, the total rice harvested area of all JE-endemic countries (excluding the Russian Federation and Australia) was 1,345,000 km2. This is an increase of 22% over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, the total rice production in these countries has risen from 226 millions of tonnes to 529 millions of tonnes (+134%). Finally, we evaluate the effect of different vector control interventions in rice fields, including environmental measures (i.e. alternate wet and dry irrigation (AWDI)), and biological control approaches (i.e. bacteria, nematodes, invertebrate predators, larvivorous fish, fungi and other natural products). We conclude that in JE-endemic rural settings, where vaccination rates are often low, an integrated vector management approach with AWDI and the use of larvivorous fish as its main components can reduce vector populations, and hence has the potential to reduce the transmission level and the burden of JE.