Tularemia in Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture was investigated epidemiologically and
1. All the tularemia cases collected by us occurred locally in the southern parts of Izu Peninsula; 25 cases in Minamiizumachi of them 20 cases infected each by separate hares, 7 cases in Shimoda-machi 6 infected each by separate hares, and 1 case in Matsuzaki machi.
2. Among these cases, the first case occurred in 1932 and the majority of cases occurred in 1949. Thereafter occurrences of a few cases continued to 1962.
3. Most cases occurred from December to March.
4. Almost all the cases were infected from skinning and processing the meat of hares found dead or weak.
5. The rate of inapparent infection of hunters group in each region in Izu area was as follows; South coast of the Peninsula 20.2%, Central part 19.4%, West coast 9.7%, and North part 8.3%, paralleing the number of the tularemia cases in each region of Izu Peninsula.
6. In retrospect, agglutination test that is positive above 1: 32 was advisable for the diagnosis.
7. Characteristics of the prevalence of tularemia in Japan was discussed.
