Affiliation:
1. Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan;
2. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Okayama University of Science, Ehime, Japan;
3. Meat Inspection Center of Ehime Prefecture, Ehime, Japan
Abstract
ABSTRACT.
Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a mosquito-borne virus, causes severe clinical symptoms in humans in the Asian-Pacific region, where it circulates in a primary transmission cycle among Culex tritaeniorhynchus mosquitoes, domestic swine (Sus scrofa domesticus), and wading birds. We report here an anomalous result that mosquito-borne JEV was detected in unfed host-questing ticks collected from the field in Japan. JEV genomic RNA was detected in four pools of Haemaphysalis flava nymphs collected in November and December 2019, and March 2020, when Cx. tritaeniorhynchus adults were not presumed to be active. Moreover, JEV antigenomic RNA was detected in some JEV-positive tick samples, suggesting virus replication in ticks. However, taken together with no infectious virus isolated, the possibility that the antigenomic RNA was derived from the undigested bloodmeal source in ticks cannot be ruled out. Thus, the role of the ticks as a natural reservoir for JEV remains to be confirmed.
Publisher
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Subject
Virology,Infectious Diseases,Parasitology
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