Abstract
Getah virus (GETV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus primarily associated with disease in horses and pigs in Asia. GETV was also reported to have been isolated from mosquitoes in Australia in 1961; however, retrieval and sequencing of the original isolates (N544 and N554), illustrated that these viruses were virtually identical to the 1955 GETVMM2021 isolate from Malaysia. K-mer mining of the >40,000 terabases of sequence data in the Sequence Read Archive followed by BLASTn confirmation identified multiple GETV sequences in biosamples from Asia (often as contaminants), but not in biosamples from Australia. In contrast, sequence reads aligning to the Australian Ross River virus (RRV) were readily identified in Australian biosamples. To explore the serological relationship between GETV and other alphaviruses, an adult wild-type mouse model of GETV was established. High levels of cross-reactivity and cross-protection were evident for convalescent sera from mice infected with GETV or RRV, highlighting the difficulties associated with the interpretation of early serosurveys reporting GETV antibodies in Australian cattle and pigs. The evidence that GETV circulates in Australia is thus not compelling.
Highlights
The mosquito-transmitted, arthritogenic alphaviruses that cause rheumatic disease in humans include chikungunya virus (CHIKV), Ross River virus (RRV), Barmah Forest virus, Sindbis virus, o’nyong’nyong virus (ONNV) and Mayaro virus (MAYV) [1]
The best evidence that Getah virus (GETV) circulates in Australia came from two virus isolations [24]; the sequence evidence presented illustrates that the “Australian” GETV isolates were the Malaysian GETVMM2021 isolate
hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays were often difficult to standardize [28] and measuring neutralization titers using mortality readouts in suckling mice [29] may be complicated by the different abilities of GETV and RRV to replicate in murine systems
Summary
The mosquito-transmitted, arthritogenic alphaviruses that cause rheumatic disease in humans include chikungunya virus (CHIKV), Ross River virus (RRV), Barmah Forest virus, Sindbis virus, o’nyong’nyong virus (ONNV) and Mayaro virus (MAYV) [1]. RRV caused an outbreak of >60,000 cases in the Pacific Islands in 1979/80 [4], and arguably has the potential for global spread [5]. Another member of this family of alphaviruses is Getah virus (GETV), which causes disease primarily in horses and pigs, with evidence for human infections limited to a small number of early serology studies undertaken before the advent of ELISA-based technologies [6,7].
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