TY - JOUR
T1 - Detection of Rift Valley Fever Virus in Aedes (Aedimorphus) durbanensis, South Africa
AU - van den Bergh, Carien
AU - Thompson, Peter N.
AU - Swanepoel, Robert
AU - Almeida, Antonio P.G.
AU - Paweska, Janusz T.
AU - van Vuren, Petrus Jansen
AU - Wilson, William C.
AU - Kemp, Alan
AU - Venter, Estelle H.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This project was partially supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number 5NU2GGH 001874-02-00 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Incentive Funding of the National Research Foundation, and the University of Pretoria.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the staff at the National Institute of Communicable diseases for attempting the virus isolation and Sanger sequencing. This project was partially supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number 5NU2GGH001874-02-00 and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided support for the USDA staff. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the USDA. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne, zoonotic phlebovirus-causing disease in domestic ruminants and humans in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and some Indian Ocean islands. Outbreaks, characterized by abortion storms and a high morbidity rate in newborn animals, occur after heavy and prolonged rainfalls favouring the breeding of mosquitoes. However, the identity of the important mosquito vectors of RVFV is poorly known in most areas. Mosquitoes collected in the Ndumo area of tropical north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, were tested for RVFV nucleic acid using RT-PCR. The virus was detected in a single pool of unfed Aedes (Aedimorphus) durbanensis, indicating that this seasonally abundant mosquito species could serve as a vector in this area of endemic RVFV circulation. Phylogenetic analysis indicated the identified virus is closely related to two isolates from the earliest outbreaks, which occurred in central South Africa more than 60 years ago, indicating long-term endemicity in the region. Further research is required to understand the eco-epidemiology of RVFV and the vectors responsible for its circulation in the eastern tropical coastal region of southern Africa.
AB - Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne, zoonotic phlebovirus-causing disease in domestic ruminants and humans in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and some Indian Ocean islands. Outbreaks, characterized by abortion storms and a high morbidity rate in newborn animals, occur after heavy and prolonged rainfalls favouring the breeding of mosquitoes. However, the identity of the important mosquito vectors of RVFV is poorly known in most areas. Mosquitoes collected in the Ndumo area of tropical north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, were tested for RVFV nucleic acid using RT-PCR. The virus was detected in a single pool of unfed Aedes (Aedimorphus) durbanensis, indicating that this seasonally abundant mosquito species could serve as a vector in this area of endemic RVFV circulation. Phylogenetic analysis indicated the identified virus is closely related to two isolates from the earliest outbreaks, which occurred in central South Africa more than 60 years ago, indicating long-term endemicity in the region. Further research is required to understand the eco-epidemiology of RVFV and the vectors responsible for its circulation in the eastern tropical coastal region of southern Africa.
KW - Aedes (Aedimorphus) durbanensis
KW - Mosquito vector
KW - Rift Valley fever virus
KW - Transmission
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123242988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/pathogens11020125
DO - 10.3390/pathogens11020125
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85123242988
SN - 2076-0817
VL - 11
JO - Pathogens
JF - Pathogens
IS - 2
M1 - 125
ER -
