Serological evidence of infection with dengue and Zika viruses in horses on French Pacific Islands

by C écile Beck, Isabelle Leparc-Goffart, Denise Desoutter, Estelle Debergé, Hervé Bichet, Steeve Lowenski, Marine Dumarest, Gaelle Gonzalez, Camille Migné, Jessica Vanhomwegen, Stéphan Zientara, Benoit Durand, Sylvie Lecollinet New Caledonia and French Polynesia are areas in which arboviruses circulate extensively. A large serological survey among horses from New Caledonia and French Polynesia was carried out to investigate the seroprevalence of flaviviruses in the horse population. Here, 293 equine sera samples were scr eened for flaviviruses using a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). The positive sera were then confirmed using a flavivirus-specific microsphere immunoassay (MIA) and seroneutralization tests. This serosurvey showed that 16.6% (27/163) and 30.8% (40/130) of horses were positive f or cELISA tests in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, respectively, but the MIA technique, targeting only flaviviruses causing neuro-invasive infections in humans and horses (i.e. West Nile virus [WNV], Japanese encephalitis virus [JEV] and tick-borne encephalitis virus [TBEV]), showed negative res ults for more than 85% (57/67) of the cELISA-positive animals. Seroneutralization tests with the main flaviviruses circulating in the South Pacific revealed that 6.1% (10/163; confidence interval [95% CI] 3.0%-11.0%) of sera in New Caledonia and 7.7% (10/130; 95% CI 3.8%-13.7%) in French Polynesia w ere positive for dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV1) and 4.3% (7/16...
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research