Aerosol and Contact Transmission Following Intranasal Infection of Mice with Japanese Encephalitis Virus

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 87
• Main Authors: Chai, Chunxia, Palinski, Rachel, Xu, Yixuan, Wang, Qiao, Cao, Sanjie, Geng, Yi, Zhao, Qin, Wen, Yiping, Huang, Xiaobo, Yan, Qiguai, Ma, Xiaoping, Wen, Xintian, Huang, Yong, Han, Xinfeng, Ma, Wenjun, Wu, Rui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21.01.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: aerosol transmission; Aerosols; Animals; Antibodies; contact transmission; Encephalitis; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese - genetics; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese - pathogenicity; Encephalitis, Japanese - transmission; Epidemics; Female; Genotype; Hogs; Infections; intranasal infection; JEV; Kidneys; Laboratory animals; Lungs; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mosquitoes; Nasal Absorption; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA, Viral - isolation & purification; Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; Vectors; Vectors (Biology); Viral Tropism; Virus Shedding; Viruses; China; contact transmission; aerosol transmission; intranasal infection; JEV; mice
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v11010087

The Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a causative agent of severe viral encephalitis in humans, has a biological cycle fluctuating between transmission in mosquitoes and avian species and amplification in pigs. Contact transmission of JEV was recently shown in pigs in the absence of arthropod vectors. Here, we show JEV transmission between infected and contact mice and further demonstrate that JEV transmission occurs between animals via aerosols, as both viral RNA and infectious JEV were detected in direct contact- and aerosol-exposed contact animals. The results of this study change our understanding of JEV transmission in densely populated regions and may help to explain JEV outbreaks without the presence of arthropod vectors.