Sentinel serosurveillance of backyard hens proved West Nile virus circulation in the western provinces of Turkey

• Published in: Veterinary medicine and science Vol. 7; no. 6; pp. 2348 - 2352
• Main Authors: Albayrak, Harun, Sahindokuyucu, Ismail, Muftuoglu, Bahadir, Tamer, Cuneyt, Kadi, Hamza, Ozan, Emre, Yilmaz, Ozge, Kilic, Hamza, Kurucay, Hanne Nur, Coven, Fethiye, Gumusova, Semra, Yazici, Zafer, Elhag, Ahmed Eisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.11.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies; Arthropods; Asymptomatic infection; backyard hens; Chickens; Culicidae; ELISA; Encephalitis; Female; Horse Diseases; Horses; Immunization; Immunoglobulin G; Infections; Mosquito Vectors; Mosquitoes; Original; Provinces; Serology; seropositive; Turkey; Vectors; Viruses; West Nile Fever - epidemiology; West Nile Fever - veterinary; West Nile virus; Zoonoses; Anatolia; Turkey; seropositive; Turkey; backyard hens; West Nile virus; ELISA
• ISSN: 2053-1095; 2053-1095
• DOI: 10.1002/vms3.589

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito‐borne virus of a re‐emergence importance with a wide range of vertebrate hosts. Granted, it causes asymptomatic infection, but fatal cases and neurologic disorders were also recorded, especially in humans, horses and some exposed birds. The virus is globally spread and birds are considered an amplifying and reservoir host of WNV, helping to spread the disease due to their close contact with main hosts. In this study, we aimed to detect the presence of antibodies against WNV in backyard hens that were reared in the western Anatolian part of Turkey. A total of 480 chicken sera were randomly collected from six provinces in the west of Turkey (Mugla, Izmir, Aydin, Afyonkarahisar, Kutahya and Manisa) with 80 samples from each province (40 in spring and 40 in fall seasons). They were tested by using a competitive ELISA method to identify the specific avian antibodies of IgG that produced against the WNV envelope proteins (pr‐E). Twelve of 480 (2.5%) sera were found seropositive, three of these positive sera were detected from the Izmir province (3.75%) collected in the spring session and the other nine positive sera were detected from the Mugla province (11.25%) collected in the fall session. Both of these provinces are located seaside and have suitable climate conditions for vectors of infection. The results indicated that WNV infection is in circulation in these provinces, and that may put the other susceptible vertebrates under risk of infection. Our study is considered for notifying serologically the presence of antibodies against West Nile virus (WNV) in backyard hens that reared in the western part of Turkey, to see if it can pose a substantial risk for both public and animal health in these areas, and the obtained results confirmed this hypothesis by achieving a seroprevalence rate of 2.5%. This outcome has an imperative significance for enhancing early detection sensitivity and capacity tools that could be used for indicating WNV circulation and estimating a possible future occurrence of human cases because those local chickens that we used in our study can play the role of sentinel animals that can provide early detection of WNV transmission.