Abstract
Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus causing severe disease in humans and ruminants. Spread of RVFV out of Africa has raised concerns that it could emerge in Europe or the USA. Virus persistence is dependent on successful infection of, replication in, and transmission to susceptible vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, modulated by virus– host and vector–virus interactions. The principal accepted theory for the long-term maintenance of RVFV involves vertical transmission (VT) of virus to mosquito progeny, with the virus surviving long inter-epizootic periods within the egg. This VT hypothesis, however, is yet to be comprehensively proven. Here, evidence for and against the VT of RVFV is reviewed along with the identification of factors limiting its detection in natural and experimental data. The observations of VT for other arboviruses in the genera Alphavirus, Flavivirus and Orthobunyavirus are discussed within the context of RVFV. The review concludes that VT of RVFV is likely but that current data are insufficient to irrefutably prove this hypothesis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 000765 |
| Pages (from-to) | 875-887 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of General Virology |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by Public Health England (PHE), the University of Surrey, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Scottish and Welsh Governments through a grant awarded to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) (project SC1402). No competing financial interestsexist. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding bodies.
Publisher Copyright:
© Crown 2017.
Keywords
- Arbovirus
- Mosquito
- Rift Valley fever virus
- Transovarian transmission
- Vector
- Vertical transmission