The feasibility of field collected pig oronasal secretions as specimens for the virologic surveillance of Japanese encephalitis virus

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Dec 3;15(12):e0009977. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009977. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Virologic surveillance of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) relies on collecting pig blood specimens and adult mosquitoes in the past. Viral RNAs extracted from pig blood specimens suffer from low detecting positivity by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR). The oronasal transmission of the virus has been demonstrated in experimentally infected pigs. This observation suggested oronasal specimens could be useful source in the virus surveillance. However, the role of this unusual route of transmission remains unproven in the operational pig farm. In this study, we explore the feasibility of using pig oronasal secretions collected by chewing ropes to improve the positivity of detection in commercial pig farms. The multiplex genotype-specific RT-PCR was used in this study to determine and compare the positivity of detecting JEV viral RNAs in pig's oronasal secretions and blood specimens, and the primary mosquito vector. Oronasal specimens had the overall positive rate of 6.0% (95% CI 1.3%-16.6%) (3/50) to 10.0% (95% CI 2.1%-26.5%) (3/30) for JEV during transmission period despite the negative results of all blood-derived specimens (n = 2442). Interestingly, pig oronasal secretions and female Culex tritaeniorhynchus mosquito samples collected from the same pig farm showed similar viral RNA positive rates, 10.0% (95% CI 2.1%-26.5%) (3/30) and 8.9% (95% CI 2.5%-21.2%) (4/45), respectively (p> 0.05). Pig oronasal secretion-based surveillance revealed the seasonality of viral activity and identified closely related genotype I virus derived from the mosquito isolates. This finding indicates oronasal secretion-based RT-PCR assay can be a non-invasive, alternative method of implementing JEV surveillance in the epidemic area prior to the circulation of virus-positive mosquitoes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Assay
  • Bodily Secretions / virology*
  • Culex / virology
  • Encephalitis Virus, Japanese / genetics
  • Encephalitis Virus, Japanese / isolation & purification*
  • Encephalitis, Japanese / prevention & control
  • Encephalitis, Japanese / transmission
  • Encephalitis, Japanese / veterinary*
  • Farms
  • Female
  • Genotype
  • Mouth / virology*
  • Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Nasal Cavity / virology*
  • RNA, Viral / genetics
  • Specimen Handling / methods*
  • Specimen Handling / standards*
  • Swine

Substances

  • RNA, Viral

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (https://www.most.gov.tw/?l=en), under Grants MOST 108-2313-B-002-007 and MOST 109-2314-B-002-163-MY3 to YCF and MOST 106-2313-B-005-050-MY3 to SSC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.