The potential for Japanese encephalitis virus transmission and spread in the US is the focus of a new investigation led by Dr. Natalia Cernicchiaro, Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. John Drake, Director of the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia. With funding from and in collaboration with researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Unit, the team of researchers commenced the multi-year grant on August 1, 2023. Researchers will model transmission dynamics in the case of a JEV incursion, integrating climatic and regional factors, under specific local conditions, considering vectored and vector-free transmission among swine and other animal hosts. Additionally, a JEV spatial interaction model will be built to estimate, predict, and forecast how a JEV outbreak in the US may spatiotemporally spread.
The US represents an area favorable for the introduction of Japanese encephalitis, a zoonotic, emerging disease transmitted primarily by Culex mosquitoes infected with the virus. Previous incursions of other mosquito-borne flaviviruses in the US include West Nile virus and Zika virus. Knowing the availability of competent insect vectors, susceptible avian and porcine hosts, and environmental conditions similar to those in epidemic countries creates concern in the US pork industry as well as with public health officials as JEV is a mosquito disease capable of affecting humans as well as pigs.
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