Epidemiological surveillance of West Nile virus in the world and Brazil

• Published in: Brazilian journal of veterinary research and animal science Vol. 56; no. 4; p. e164335
• Main Authors: Costa, Erica Azevedo, Bayeux, José Joffre Martins, Silva, Aila Solimar Gonçalves, De Queiroz, Guilherme Alves, Santos, Beatriz Senra Álvares da Silva, Rocha, Marcele Neves, Rehfeld, Izabelle Silva, Franklin, Luisa Feliciano de Souza, Valle, Livia Braga, Guedes, Maria Isabel Maldonado Coelho, Teixeira, Raffaella Bertoni Cavalcanti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo 25.03.2020
• Subjects: Awareness; Equine surveillance; Flavivirus; West Nile virus
• ISSN: 1413-9596; 1678-4456
• DOI: 10.11606/issn.1678-4456.bjvras.2019.164335

West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurovirulent mosquito-borne Flavivirus that is maintained in nature by a zoonotic transmissioncycle between avian hosts and ornithophilic mosquito vectors, mostly from the Culex genus. Until the 1990s, WNV wasconsidered to be an old-world arbovirus, but in 1999, WNV emerged in the United States (US) and spread rapidly, becoming amajor threat to public health. WNV adapted to the transmission cycle involving American mosquitoes and birds and reachedCentral and South America in subsequent years. In 2003, the National West Nile Fever Surveillance System was created in Brazilbased on serological screening of animals and sentinel vectors, as recommended by the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 2008, serological evidence of WNV infection in Brazilian horseshas been reported, and the circulation of WNV has been monitored through the regular serological screening of sentinel horsesand reporting of encephalomyelitis cases. Horses are highly susceptible to WNV infection, and outbreaks of neurologicaldisease among horses often precede human cases. In this regard, equine surveillance has been essential in providing earlywarning to public and animal health authorities in several countries, including Brazil. This demonstrates the need for animaland public health intervention programs to allocate resources to make veterinarians aware of the role they can play in thehuman surveillance processes by monitoring horses. This review discusses the importance of equine surveillance and the gapthat veterinarians can fill on the front line in human surveillance, in Brazil and worldwide, in the context of “One Health”