病毒與蚊子：冷戰時期臺灣的日本腦炎研究與博物學採集（1945-1970s）

Abstract

冷戰高峰的1950至1970年之間被稱為是節肢足動物攜帶性病毒（arthropod-borne virus）研究的黃金年代，而東亞地區日本腦炎病毒（Japanese Encephalitis Virus, JEV）的傳播途徑是其中最為複雜者之一。只在夏天爆發流行的特性，讓JEV的度冬（over-winter）與重複引入（re-introduction）機制打開了多樣的病毒生命史尺度想像。以臺灣為焦點，我追溯美國海軍第二醫學研究所（U. S. Naval Medical Research Unit No.2, NAMRU-2）釐清JEV傳播機制的各種嘗試，分析冷戰美援期間疾病生態學研究的特徵，挑戰冷戰科學的升尺度（upscaling）信仰。我認為NAMRU-2作為美軍在東亞前沿的醫學哨站（outpost），雖然集田野與實驗室技術於一身，卻受機構活動模式限制，無法以合適的實作尺度釐清病媒生物之分類、行為與生態學。為了符合醫學哨站的任務，NAMRU-2尋求臺灣本地醫學昆蟲與鳥類繫放（bird-banding）工作者在野外調查上的支援，構成了一種下特殊的「田野—實驗室」科學合作與分工。這種合作與分工模式推動臺灣博物學的發展，挑戰既有的實驗室優位敘事，也持續創造出新的病毒生命史尺度想像。

Focusing on the study of arthropod-borne diseases, Arbovirology reached its “golden age” during 1950-1970. In this emerging scientific realm, the Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) presented one of the most complicated problems of transmission routes in East Asia. Characterized as the pathogen of “summer encephalitis,” the seasonality of JEV raised a long-lasting puzzle about its overwinter and re-introduction mechanism. The JEV puzzle had put forth a problem of scale in epidemiological terms. Following the U. S. Naval Medical Research Unit No.2 (NAMRU-2), an “Outpost against Diseases” of the U. S. Navy which had devoted to disentangling the JEV puzzle, I portray the limitation of large-scale disease investigation and the formulation of a lab-field division of labor under the name of Sino-American scientific collaboration. I argue that the division of labor had helped justify the capability of NAMRU-2 in protecting the U.S. Armed Forces from “exotic” diseases in East Asia. It also fostered the realm of Natural History in Cold War Taiwan in connection with virus studies in the laboratory. As fieldwork kept identifying “real” problems in the disease ecology of JEV, it served with the lab as an integrated unit while challenging the superiority of laboratory work in the epistemology of science.