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Inter-epidemic Rift Valley fever virus infection incidence and risks for zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania.

Publication ,  Journal Article
de Glanville, WA; Nyarobi, JM; Kibona, T; Halliday, JEB; Thomas, KM; Allan, KJ; Johnson, PCD; Davis, A; Lankester, F; Claxton, JR; Rostal, MK ...
Published in: PLoS Negl Trop Dis
October 2022

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen that has caused epidemics involving people and animals across Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. A number of studies have found evidence for the circulation of RVFV among livestock between these epidemics but the population-level incidence of infection during this inter-epidemic period (IEP) is rarely reported. General force of infection (FOI) models were applied to age-adjusted cross-sectional serological data to reconstruct the annual FOI and population-level incidence of RVFV infection among cattle, goats, and sheep in northern Tanzania from 2009 through 2015, a period without reported Rift Valley fever (RVF) cases in people or animals. To evaluate the potential for zoonotic RVFV spillover during this period, the relationship between village-level livestock RVFV FOI and human RVFV seropositivity was quantified using multi-level logistic regression. The predicted average annual incidence was 72 (95% Credible Interval [CrI] 63, 81) RVFV infections per 10,000 animals and 96 (95% CrI 81, 113), 79 (95% CrI 62, 98), and 39 (95% CrI 28, 52) per 10,000 cattle, sheep, and goats, respectively. There was variation in transmission intensity between study villages, with the highest estimated village-level FOI 2.49% (95% CrI 1.89, 3.23) and the lowest 0.12% (95% CrI 0.02, 0.43). The human RVFV seroprevalence was 8.2% (95% Confidence Interval 6.2, 10.9). Human seropositivity was strongly associated with the village-level FOI in livestock, with the odds of seropositivity in an individual person increasing by around 1.2 times (95% CrI 1.1, 1.3) for each additional annual RVFV seroconversion per 1,000 animals. A history of raw milk consumption was also positively associated with human seropositivity. RVFV has circulated at apparently low levels among livestock in northern Tanzania in the period since the last reported epidemic. Although our data do not allow us to confirm human RVFV infections during the IEP, a strong association between human seropositivity and the FOI in cattle, goats, and sheep supports the hypothesis that RVFV circulation among livestock during the IEP poses a risk for undetected zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania. We provide further evidence for the likely role of raw milk consumption in RVFV transmission from animals to people.

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Published In

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

DOI

EISSN

1935-2735

Publication Date

October 2022

Volume

16

Issue

10

Start / End Page

e0010871

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Zoonoses
  • Tropical Medicine
  • Tanzania
  • Sheep
  • Seroepidemiologic Studies
  • Rift Valley fever virus
  • Rift Valley Fever
  • Livestock
  • Incidence
  • Humans
 

Citation

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de Glanville, W. A., Nyarobi, J. M., Kibona, T., Halliday, J. E. B., Thomas, K. M., Allan, K. J., … Cleaveland, S. (2022). Inter-epidemic Rift Valley fever virus infection incidence and risks for zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 16(10), e0010871. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010871
Glanville, William A. de, James M. Nyarobi, Tito Kibona, Jo E. B. Halliday, Kate M. Thomas, Kathryn J. Allan, Paul C. D. Johnson, et al. “Inter-epidemic Rift Valley fever virus infection incidence and risks for zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania.PLoS Negl Trop Dis 16, no. 10 (October 2022): e0010871. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010871.
de Glanville WA, Nyarobi JM, Kibona T, Halliday JEB, Thomas KM, Allan KJ, et al. Inter-epidemic Rift Valley fever virus infection incidence and risks for zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Oct;16(10):e0010871.
de Glanville, William A., et al. “Inter-epidemic Rift Valley fever virus infection incidence and risks for zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania.PLoS Negl Trop Dis, vol. 16, no. 10, Oct. 2022, p. e0010871. Pubmed, doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010871.
de Glanville WA, Nyarobi JM, Kibona T, Halliday JEB, Thomas KM, Allan KJ, Johnson PCD, Davis A, Lankester F, Claxton JR, Rostal MK, Carter RW, de Jong RMF, Rubach MP, Crump JA, Mmbaga BT, Nyasebwa OM, Swai ES, Willett B, Cleaveland S. Inter-epidemic Rift Valley fever virus infection incidence and risks for zoonotic spillover in northern Tanzania. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Oct;16(10):e0010871.

Published In

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

DOI

EISSN

1935-2735

Publication Date

October 2022

Volume

16

Issue

10

Start / End Page

e0010871

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Zoonoses
  • Tropical Medicine
  • Tanzania
  • Sheep
  • Seroepidemiologic Studies
  • Rift Valley fever virus
  • Rift Valley Fever
  • Livestock
  • Incidence
  • Humans