Pulmanausahakul Rojjanaporn, Ketsuwan Kunjimas, Jaimipuk Thitigun, Smith Duncan R, Auewarakul Prasert, Songserm Thaweesak
Faculty of Medicine and Public Health, HRH Princess Chulabhorn College of Medical Science, Chulabhorn Royal Academy, Bangkok, Thailand.
Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Transbound Emerg Dis. 2022 Mar;69(2):870-873. doi: 10.1111/tbed.13998. Epub 2021 Feb 7.
Duck tembusu virus (DTMUV) is an emerging duck pathogen in China and other Asian countries. It is unclear whether this emerging zoonotic infection poses a threat to humans. A previous study in 2012 showed surprisingly high rates of seropositivity and positive viral detection by RT-PCR in duck farm workers in China. To understand the nature of the threat of this emerging virus, we studied the neutralizing antibody response to a local isolate of DTMUV in an at-risk population, who were workers in duck farms and residents around farming areas in Central Thailand where DTMUV had been previously detected, and in a not-at-risk population, who were people living in the same or neighbouring province, but at a distance from the farms and who had no contact with ducks. The sera from the at-risk population showed higher anti-DTMUV neutralizing antibody titres as compared with those of the not-at-risk population. However, within the at-risk population, workers with direct contact with ducks did not show higher neutralizing titres than those without direct contact. Interestingly, some people in the not-at-risk group also displayed high neutralizing antibody titres to DTMUV. These sera were tested against other endemic Flaviviruses and showed no or low cross-reactivity suggesting the specificity of the neutralizing activity against DTMUV. These data raise a possibility of DTMUV as a potential zoonotic pathogen but the mode of transmission of the virus from ducks or other possible hosts to humans should be explored further.
鸭坦布苏病毒（DTMUV）是中国和其他亚洲国家新出现的一种鸭病原体。目前尚不清楚这种新出现的人畜共患病感染是否对人类构成威胁。2012年的一项先前研究显示，中国鸭场工人的血清阳性率和通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测到的病毒阳性率出奇地高。为了了解这种新出现病毒的威胁性质，我们研究了泰国中部一个有风险人群（即曾检测到DTMUV的鸭场工人和养殖区周边居民）以及一个无风险人群（即生活在同一省份或相邻省份但距离农场较远且未接触过鸭子的人）对当地分离的DTMUV的中和抗体反应。与无风险人群相比，有风险人群的血清显示出更高的抗DTMUV中和抗体滴度。然而，在有风险人群中，直接接触鸭子的工人的中和滴度并不高于未直接接触鸭子的工人。有趣的是，无风险组中的一些人也表现出对DTMUV的高中和抗体滴度。这些血清针对其他地方性黄病毒进行了检测，结果显示无交叉反应或交叉反应较低，这表明针对DTMUV的中和活性具有特异性。这些数据增加了DTMUV作为一种潜在人畜共患病原体的可能性，但该病毒从鸭子或其他可能宿主传播给人类的方式仍需进一步探索。
