Occurrence of West Nile fever in Equine, Birds, Human and Mosquitoes in Behera Province

Abstract

A total of 257 serum samples including, equine (56), birds (95) and human (106) were collected from rural area in Behera Province during the period extended from the beginning of June to the end of October 2013 to be examined for presence of antibodies against West Nile virus by ELISA. In addition, a total of 943 mosquitoes (25 mosquitoes groups) were collected by CDC light trap from the same place and during the same period where homogenized tissue samples of mosquitoes were obtained to be examined for presence of viral RNA of WNV by real time RT-PCR. The serological examination of serum samples clarified that the prevalence of IgG antibodies against WNV was 100, 4.2 and 58.5 % in equine, birds and human serum samples, respectively. Moreover, some epidemiological aspects of human samples were studied including gender, age and health status. Statistical analysis indicated significant differences in detection of IgG antibodies against WNFV in different genders where the higher detection rate was observed in females (42.30 %), than in males (35 %), in different age groups where the higher detection rate was observed in age group 40 - < 60 years (83.33 %) followed by age group 20 -