External quality assessment of Rift Valley fever diagnosis in 17 veterinary laboratories of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions.

Elisa Pérez‐Ramírez ,Cristina Cano-Gómez,Natela Toklikishvili,Jeanne El Hage,Kurtesh Sherifi,Igor Djadjovski,Hassiba Sadaoui,Alejandro Brun,Hermine Hovsepyan,Federica Monaco,Fatiha El Mellouli,Ilke Karayel-Hacioglu,Ani Vodica,Francisco Rubio Llorente ,Sayed Hassan Salem,Maisa S Al Ameer ,Selma Mejri,Miguel Ángel Jiménez‐Clavero ,Jelena Maksimović Zorić ,Teufik Goletić ,Bojan Adžić ,Jovita Fernández-Piñero

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239478

Abstract

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an arboviral zoonosis that primarily affects ruminants but can also cause illness in humans. The increasing impact of RVF in Africa and Middle East and the risk of expansion to other areas such as Europe, where competent mosquitos are already established, require the implementation of efficient surveillance programs in animal populations. For that, it is pivotal to regularly assess the performance of existing diagnostic tests and to evaluate the capacity of veterinary labs of endemic and non-endemic countries to detect the infection in an accurate and timely manner. In this context, the animal virology network of the MediLabSecure project organized between October 2016 and March 2017 an external quality assessment (EQA) to evaluate the RVF diagnostic capacities of beneficiary veterinary labs. This EQA was conceived as the last step of a training curriculum that included 2 diagnostic workshops that were organized by INIA-CISA (Spain) in 2015 and 2016. Seventeen veterinary diagnostic labs from 17 countries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions participated in this EQA. The exercise consisted of two panels of samples for molecular and serological detection of the virus. The laboratories were also provided with positive controls and all the kits and reagents necessary to perform the recommended diagnostic techniques. All the labs were able to apply the different protocols and to provide the results on time. The performance was good in the molecular panel with 70.6% of participants reporting 100% correct results, and excellent in the serological panel with 100% correct results reported by 94.1% of the labs. This EQA provided a good overview of the RVFV diagnostic capacities of the involved labs and demonstrated that most of them were able to correctly identify the virus genome and antibodies in different animal samples.

Highlights

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic viral disease that primarily affects animals, and humans
This study reports the results of the inter-laboratory trial and provides relevant information about the current RVFV diagnostic capacities of veterinary labs in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions
As part of the capacity building activities, two workshops were organized in 2015 and 2016 to provide specialized training in molecular and serological diagnosis of the arboviruses that were identified as major health concerns in the region, namely West Nile virus and RVFV

Summary

Introduction

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic viral disease that primarily affects animals (mainly ruminants and camels), and humans. The causative agent of RVF is an arbovirus belonging to the Phlebovirus genus in the Phenuiviridae family that was first identified in the Rift Valley of Kenya in 1930 [1]. It is transmitted to animals by mosquitos of the genus Aedes and Culex [2]. The clinical manifestations of the disease in animals vary depending on age and the species affected. Young animals are significantly more likely to succumb than adults. Sheep and goats are highly susceptible while adult cattle and camels are usually asymptomatic. In most cases the animals exhibit fever, lethargy, hepatic and splenic lesions, bloody diarrhoea and abortions. Severe disease can occur suddenly causing death without previous symptoms [2, 4]

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Results

Conclusion