Detection of antibodies to duck tembusu virus in human population with or without the history of contact with ducks
Issued Date
2022-03-01
Resource Type
ISSN
18651674
eISSN
18651682
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85100589305
Pubmed ID
33470024
Journal Title
Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
Volume
69
Issue
2
Start Page
870
End Page
873
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Transboundary and Emerging Diseases Vol.69 No.2 (2022) , 870-873
Suggested Citation
Pulmanausahakul R., Ketsuwan K., Jaimipuk T., Smith D.R., Auewarakul P., Songserm T. Detection of antibodies to duck tembusu virus in human population with or without the history of contact with ducks. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases Vol.69 No.2 (2022) , 870-873. 873. doi:10.1111/tbed.13998 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/85020
Title
Detection of antibodies to duck tembusu virus in human population with or without the history of contact with ducks
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Duck tembusu virus (DTMUV) is an emerging duck pathogen in China and other Asian countries. It is unclear whether this emerging zoonotic infection poses a threat to humans. A previous study in 2012 showed surprisingly high rates of seropositivity and positive viral detection by RT-PCR in duck farm workers in China. To understand the nature of the threat of this emerging virus, we studied the neutralizing antibody response to a local isolate of DTMUV in an at-risk population, who were workers in duck farms and residents around farming areas in Central Thailand where DTMUV had been previously detected, and in a not-at-risk population, who were people living in the same or neighbouring province, but at a distance from the farms and who had no contact with ducks. The sera from the at-risk population showed higher anti-DTMUV neutralizing antibody titres as compared with those of the not-at-risk population. However, within the at-risk population, workers with direct contact with ducks did not show higher neutralizing titres than those without direct contact. Interestingly, some people in the not-at-risk group also displayed high neutralizing antibody titres to DTMUV. These sera were tested against other endemic Flaviviruses and showed no or low cross-reactivity suggesting the specificity of the neutralizing activity against DTMUV. These data raise a possibility of DTMUV as a potential zoonotic pathogen but the mode of transmission of the virus from ducks or other possible hosts to humans should be explored further.
