Hemida Maged G, Perera Ranawaka A P M, Chu Daniel K W, Ko Ronald L W, Alnaeem Abdelmohsen A, Peiris Malik
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt.
Zoonoses Public Health. 2019 Mar;66(2):248-253. doi: 10.1111/zph.12532. Epub 2018 Nov 6.
West Nile virus (WNV) is an important emerging zoonotic arbovirus giving rise to clinical syndromes of varying severity in humans and horses. Culex mosquitoes are the main vector. Although WNV has been reported in many countries in the Middle East and Asia, little is known about its prevalence in equine populations in the Arabian Peninsula. We have carried out a serological study on 200 horses to assess WNV infection in the Eastern and Central regions of Saudi Arabia in 2013-2015. Sera were tested for the presence of WNV antibodies in parallel using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit and microneutralization (MN) tests. In comparison with the MN assay used as "gold standard," we find the ELISA had a sensitivity of 94.7% and specificity of 80.1%. The prevalence of WNV neutralizing antibody ranged from 5 (17.3%) of 29 sera collected in Riyadh up to 15 (55.6%) of 27 sera collected from Al-Qateef. These findings highlight the need to be aware of the possibility of WNV disease in humans and horses presenting with central nervous system disease in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
西尼罗河病毒（WNV）是一种重要的新兴人畜共患虫媒病毒，可在人类和马匹中引发严重程度各异的临床综合征。库蚊是主要传播媒介。尽管中东和亚洲的许多国家都报告过WNV，但对于其在阿拉伯半岛马群中的流行情况却知之甚少。我们对200匹马进行了一项血清学研究，以评估2013年至2015年沙特阿拉伯东部和中部地区的WNV感染情况。使用商用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）试剂盒和微量中和（MN）试验同时检测血清中WNV抗体的存在。与用作“金标准”的MN试验相比，我们发现ELISA的灵敏度为94.7%，特异性为80.1%。WNV中和抗体的流行率从利雅得采集的29份血清中的5份（17.3%）到盖提夫采集的27份血清中的15份（55.6%）不等。这些发现凸显了在沙特阿拉伯王国，对于出现中枢神经系统疾病的人类和马匹，需要意识到感染WNV疾病的可能性。
