Abstract
BackgroundCrimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a severe tick-borne viral hemorrhagic disease caused by Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) that poses serious public health challenges in many parts of Africa, Europe and Asia. MethodsWe examined 500 cattle sera samples from five districts for CCHFV antibodies using in-house and commercially available (IDVet) ELISA, Immunofluorescent assay (IFA) and Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results500 cattle (73.8 % females) were analyzed; CCHFV seropositivity was 12.6 % (n = 63) and 75.0 % (n = 375) with the in-house and IDVet ELISAs, respectively. Seropositivity was associated with geographical location, increasing age, being female, and having a higher tick burden. Twenty four out of the 37 (64.8 %) were seropositive for CCHFV using IFA and all were negative for virus on RT-PCR. The IFA results were more comparable to IDVet (κcoefficient = 0.88, p = <0.01) than to in-house (κcoefficient = 0.32, p = 0.02). ConclusionsOur study confirmed the presence and high prevalence of anti−CCHF antibodies in cattle based on three methods from all the five study districts, confirming presence and exposure of CCHFV. Given the zoonotic potential for CCHFV, we recommend a multidisciplinary public health surveillance and epidemiology of CCHFV in both animals and humans throughout the country.
Highlights
Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is one of the most medically important tick-borne diseases of humans, manifesting as a fever, or general malaise, but often as a severe non-specific hemorrhagic fever with up to 30 %, or higher, case fatality in hospitalized patients (Bente et al, 2013; Ergonül, 2006; Shayan et al, 2015). It is caused by Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV), an enveloped, negative-sense Ribonucleic acids (RNA) Orthonairovirus belonging to the Nairoviridae family (Abudurexiti et al, 2019)
Discordance was observed in 14 samples when the in-house assay was compared with Immunofluorescent assay (IFA); 13 samples that were initially negative on the in-house assay were positive on IFA, whereas the only sample that was positive by in-house and negative by IDVet was negative on IFA
The main objective of this study was to establish the prevalence of CCHFV and viral antibodies in cattle from five selected districts of Uganda using both serological and molecular methods
Summary
Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is one of the most medically important tick-borne diseases of humans, manifesting as a fever, or general malaise, but often as a severe non-specific hemorrhagic fever with up to 30 %, or higher, case fatality in hospitalized patients (Bente et al, 2013; Ergonül, 2006; Shayan et al, 2015). It is caused by Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV), an enveloped, negative-sense RNA Orthonairovirus belonging to the Nairoviridae family (Abudurexiti et al, 2019). Given the zoonotic potential for CCHFV, we recommend a multidisciplinary public health surveillance and epidemiology of CCHFV in both animals and humans throughout the country
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