Abstract

Background: Crimean-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.Methods: We 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).Results: 500 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 com-parable to IDVet (kappa(coefficient) = 0.88, p = <0.01) than to in-house (kappa(coefficient) = 0.32, p = 0.02).Conclusions: Our 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.

Keywords

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus; Seroprevalence; Cattle; Uganda; Immunofluorescent assay

Published in

Journal of Virological Methods
2021, Volume: 290, article number: 114075
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• von Brömssen, Claudia

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Malmberg, Maja

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Clinical Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2021.114075

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/114786