Lubisi Baratang A, Ndouvhada Phumudzo N, Neiffer Donald, Penrith Mary-Louise, Sibanda Donald-Ray, Bastos Armanda D S
Agricultural Research Council ⁻ Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa.
Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag 20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa.
Trop Med Infect Dis. 2019 Mar 25;4(1):52. doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed4010052.
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a vector-borne viral disease of ruminants mainly, and man, characterized by abortions and neonatal deaths in animals and flu-like to more severe symptoms that can result in death in humans. The disease is endemic in Africa, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and outbreaks occur following proliferation of RVF virus (RVFV) infected mosquito vectors. Vertebrate animal maintenance hosts of RVFV, which serve as a source of virus during inter-epidemic periods remain unknown, with wild and domestic suids being largely overlooked. To address this, we evaluated the virus neutralization test (VNT) for RVF antibody detection in suid sera, as a first step in assessing the role of suids in the epidemiology of RVF in Africa. Testing of experimental and field sera from domestic pigs and warthogs with a commercial RVF competitive antibody ELISA, served as a reference standard against which the VNT results were compared. Results indicate that VNT can detect anti-RVFV antibodies within three days post-infection, has an analytical specificity of 100% and diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 97%, respectively. Although labour-intensive and time-consuming, the VNT proved suitable for screening suid sera and plasma for presence of RVFV antibodies in viraemic and recovered animals.
裂谷热（RVF）是一种主要由媒介传播的病毒性疾病，主要感染反刍动物和人类，其特征是动物出现流产和新生动物死亡，人类出现类似流感的症状，严重时可导致死亡。该疾病在非洲、沙特阿拉伯和也门呈地方流行性，在感染裂谷热病毒（RVFV）的蚊媒大量繁殖后会爆发疫情。在疫情间歇期作为病毒来源的RVFV脊椎动物维持宿主仍然未知，野生和家养猪科动物在很大程度上被忽视了。为了解决这个问题，我们评估了用于检测猪科动物血清中裂谷热抗体的病毒中和试验（VNT），作为评估猪科动物在非洲裂谷热流行病学中作用的第一步。用商业裂谷热竞争性抗体ELISA检测家猪和疣猪的实验血清和野外血清，作为比较VNT结果参考标准。结果表明，VNT能够在感染后三天内检测到抗RVFV抗体，其分析特异性为100%，诊断敏感性和特异性分别为80%和97%。尽管VNT劳动强度大且耗时，但事实证明它适用于筛查病毒血症动物和康复动物的猪科动物血清和血浆中是否存在RVFV抗体。
