Seroprevalence of Rift Valley Fever and West Nile Fever in Cattle in Gambella Region, South West Ethiopia

Getahun Asebe; Gezahegne Mamo; Daniela Michlmayr; Woldaregay Erku Abegaz; Adugna Endale; Girmay Medhin; James W Larrick; Mengistu Legesse

doi:10.2147/VMRR.S278867

Seroprevalence of Rift Valley Fever and West Nile Fever in Cattle in Gambella Region, South West Ethiopia

Vet Med (Auckl). 2020 Nov 19:11:119-130. doi: 10.2147/VMRR.S278867. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Getahun Asebe^{1

2}, Gezahegne Mamo¹, Daniela Michlmayr³, Woldaregay Erku Abegaz⁴, Adugna Endale^{5

6}, Girmay Medhin⁵, James W Larrick⁷, Mengistu Legesse⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Immunology and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
² College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gambella University, Gambella, Ethiopia.
³ Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁵ Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁶ School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dire Dawa University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
⁷ Panorama Research Institute, Sunnyvale, CA, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: Rift Valley fever (RVF) and West Nile fever (WNF) are re-emerging mosquito-borne zoonotic diseases that cause public health and economic crises. Ethiopia shares borders with South Sudan and Kenya, where these diseases are often documented. The free movement of animals and humans across these borders expects to increase the spread of these diseases. The current study was conducted to assess the occurrence of these diseases in the Gambella region of Ethiopia.

Methodology: We collected a total of 368 cattle serum samples from the Lare district on the border of South Sudan and measured the presence of IgG antibody against RVF and WNF virus infections using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA).

Results: The prevalence of anti-RVF virus IgG antibody was 7.6% (95% CI: 5.3-10.82%), while that of anti-WNF virus IgG antibody was 5.4% (95% CI: 3.52-8.29%). In this study higher seroprevalence of IgG antibodies to RVF virus infection was observed comparing to the WNF virus in cattle. There was no significant association between the prevalence and the cattle age, sex or sampled locations.

Conclusion: The detection of IgG antibody to RVF and WNF virus infections in the Gambella region warrants further study of active case findings and the dynamics of transmission.

Keywords: Ethiopia; serology RVF; WNF; cattle; Gambella.

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by Addis Ababa University, Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer. The ELISA kits were donated by LaRuke Development and the Panorama Research Institute, California USA. The research funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.