Lord Jennifer S
Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK.
Pathogens. 2021 Mar 4;10(3):294. doi: 10.3390/pathogens10030294.
The known distribution of Japanese encephalitis (JE) is limited to Asia and Australasia. However, autochthonous transmission of Japanese encephalitis virus was reported in Africa for the first time in 2016. Reasons for the current geographic restriction of JE and the circumstances that may permit emergence in non-endemic areas are not well known. Here, I assess potential changes in vector breeding habitat and livestock production in Africa that are conducive to JEV transmission, using open-source data available from the Food and Agriculture Organization between 1961 and 2019. For 16 of 57 countries in Africa, there was evidence of existing, or an increase in, conditions potentially suitable for JE emergence. This comprised the area used for rice production and the predicted proportion of blood meals on pigs. Angola, where autochthonous transmission was reported, was one of these 16 countries. Studies to better quantify the role of alternative hosts, including domestic birds in transmission in endemic regions, would help to determine the potential for emergence elsewhere. In Africa, surveillance programs for arboviruses should not rule out the possibility of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) circulation in areas with high pig or bird density coincident with Culicine breeding habitats.
已知日本脑炎（JE）的分布仅限于亚洲和澳大拉西亚。然而，2016年非洲首次报告了日本脑炎病毒的本土传播。目前日本脑炎存在地理限制的原因以及可能导致其在非流行地区出现的情况尚不清楚。在此，我利用联合国粮食及农业组织1961年至2019年期间提供的开源数据，评估了非洲有利于日本脑炎病毒传播的病媒繁殖栖息地和牲畜生产的潜在变化。在非洲57个国家中的16个国家，有证据表明存在或出现了可能适合日本脑炎出现的条件。这包括用于水稻生产的面积以及预测的以猪为血源的比例。报告有本土传播的安哥拉是这16个国家之一。开展研究以更好地量化包括家禽在内的替代宿主在流行地区传播中的作用，将有助于确定其他地区出现日本脑炎的可能性。在非洲，虫媒病毒监测项目不应排除在猪或鸟类密度高且与库蚊繁殖栖息地重合的地区存在日本脑炎病毒传播的可能性。
