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West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia

West Nile Virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus enzootically maintained in birds. However, it can incidentally infect other species, leading to sometimes severe clinical consequences like in horses and especially human beings. Despite the topic relevance, the presence and distribution of WNV are cur...

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Autores principales: Molini, Umberto, Franzo, Giovanni, Nel, Hannah, Khaiseb, Siegfried, Ntahonshikira, Charles, Chiwome, Bernard, Baines, Ian, Madzingira, Oscar, Monaco, Federica, Savini, Giovanni, D'Alterio, Nicola
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8249584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34222404
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.681354
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author Molini, Umberto
Franzo, Giovanni
Nel, Hannah
Khaiseb, Siegfried
Ntahonshikira, Charles
Chiwome, Bernard
Baines, Ian
Madzingira, Oscar
Monaco, Federica
Savini, Giovanni
D'Alterio, Nicola
author_facet Molini, Umberto
Franzo, Giovanni
Nel, Hannah
Khaiseb, Siegfried
Ntahonshikira, Charles
Chiwome, Bernard
Baines, Ian
Madzingira, Oscar
Monaco, Federica
Savini, Giovanni
D'Alterio, Nicola
author_sort Molini, Umberto
collection PubMed
description West Nile Virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus enzootically maintained in birds. However, it can incidentally infect other species, leading to sometimes severe clinical consequences like in horses and especially human beings. Despite the topic relevance, the presence and distribution of WNV are currently unknown in Namibia. Several countries implement surveillance systems based on virus detection in birds, mosquitoes, and vertebrate species including horses. The present study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by serologically evaluating WNV exposure in Namibian donkeys, whose population is remarkably bigger than the horse one. Forty-seven out of 260 sampled animals showed neutralizing antibodies against WNV (18.07% [95% CI = 13.59–23.30%]), demonstrating its circulation in all country territory, although, with apparent regional differences. On the contrary, no association with animal age or sex could be identified. The present study demonstrates the widespread presence of WNV in Namibia as well as the practical utility and effectiveness of donkeys as sentinels for infection surveillance. Due to clinical relevance, vaccination campaigns should be considered for horses of high economic or genetic value. Additionally, the burden of WNV infection on human health should be carefully evaluated.
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spelling pubmed-82495842021-07-03 West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia Molini, Umberto Franzo, Giovanni Nel, Hannah Khaiseb, Siegfried Ntahonshikira, Charles Chiwome, Bernard Baines, Ian Madzingira, Oscar Monaco, Federica Savini, Giovanni D'Alterio, Nicola Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science West Nile Virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus enzootically maintained in birds. However, it can incidentally infect other species, leading to sometimes severe clinical consequences like in horses and especially human beings. Despite the topic relevance, the presence and distribution of WNV are currently unknown in Namibia. Several countries implement surveillance systems based on virus detection in birds, mosquitoes, and vertebrate species including horses. The present study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by serologically evaluating WNV exposure in Namibian donkeys, whose population is remarkably bigger than the horse one. Forty-seven out of 260 sampled animals showed neutralizing antibodies against WNV (18.07% [95% CI = 13.59–23.30%]), demonstrating its circulation in all country territory, although, with apparent regional differences. On the contrary, no association with animal age or sex could be identified. The present study demonstrates the widespread presence of WNV in Namibia as well as the practical utility and effectiveness of donkeys as sentinels for infection surveillance. Due to clinical relevance, vaccination campaigns should be considered for horses of high economic or genetic value. Additionally, the burden of WNV infection on human health should be carefully evaluated. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8249584/ /pubmed/34222404 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.681354 Text en Copyright © 2021 Molini, Franzo, Nel, Khaiseb, Ntahonshikira, Chiwome, Baines, Madzingira, Monaco, Savini and D'Alterio. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Molini, Umberto
Franzo, Giovanni
Nel, Hannah
Khaiseb, Siegfried
Ntahonshikira, Charles
Chiwome, Bernard
Baines, Ian
Madzingira, Oscar
Monaco, Federica
Savini, Giovanni
D'Alterio, Nicola
West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia
title West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia
title_full West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia
title_fullStr West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia
title_full_unstemmed West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia
title_short West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in a Selected Donkey Population of Namibia
title_sort west nile virus seroprevalence in a selected donkey population of namibia
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8249584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34222404
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.681354
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