Serosurveillance for Japanese encephalitis virus in wild birds captured in Korea

• Published in: Journal of Veterinary Science
• Main Authors: Yang, Dong-Kun, Oh, Yoon-I, Kim, Hye-Ryoung, Lee, Youn-Jeong, Moon, Oun-Kyong, Yoon, Hachung, Kim, Byounghan, Lee, Kyung-Woo, Song, Jae-Young
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The Korean Society of Veterinary Science 2011
• Subjects: Original Article; Anas acuta
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3232397; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22122903; https://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2011.12.4.373

Climate change induced by recent global warming may have a significant impact on vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. For example, the distribution of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) has expanded into new regions. We surveyed the levels of hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibodies against JEV (Family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus) in wild birds captured in Korea. Blood samples were collected from 1,316 wild birds including the following migratory birds: Oceanodroma castro (n = 4), Anas formosa (n = 7), Anas penelope (n = 20), Fulica atra (n = 30), Anas acuta (n = 89), Anas crecca (n = 154), Anas platyrhynchos (n = 214), Aix galericulata (n = 310), and Anas poecilorhyncha (n = 488). All were captured in 16 locations in several Korea provinces between April 2007 and December 2009. Out of the 1,316 serum samples tested, 1,141 (86.7%) were positive for JEV. Wild birds captured in 2009 had a higher seroprevalence of ant-JEV antibodies than those captured in 2007. Wild birds with an HI antibody titer of 1 : 1,280 or higher accounted for 21.2% (280/1,316) of the animals tested. These findings indicated that wild birds from the region examined in our study have been exposed to JEV and may pose a high risk for introducing a new JEV genotype into Korea.