4.6 Article

Bulk Milk Tank Samples Are Suitable to Assess Circulation of Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus in High Endemic Areas

Journal

VIRUSES-BASEL
Volume 13, Issue 9, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/v13091772

Keywords

TBEV; TBEV in milk; alimentary TBE; TBEV prevalence; tick-borne encephalitis; flavivirus

Categories

Funding

  1. Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic Lithuania [MT-18-5]
  2. Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Foundation

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Testing milk samples can be a valuable tool for investigating the spatial distribution of TBEV at a higher resolution and lower cost, as shown by this study. The geographical distribution of TBEV in milk samples correlated with the incidence of TBE in humans in 2019, indicating its potential as a reliable surveillance strategy.
A reliable surveillance strategy of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is necessary to ensure adequate disease control measures. However, current approaches assessing geographical TBEV circulation are ineffective or have significant limitations. In this study we investigated a total of 1363 goat and 312 sheep bulk tank milk samples for the presence of TBEV. Samples were collected from systematically selected farms in Lithuania every 4-5 days from April to November in 2018 and 2019. To validate results, we additionally tested 2685 questing ticks collected in the vicinity of milk collection sites. We found 4.25% (95% CI 3.25-5.47) and 4.48% (95% CI 2.47-7.41) goat and sheep milk samples to be positive for TBEV, respectively. Furthermore, geographical distribution of TBEV in milk samples coincided with the known TBE endemic zone and was correlated with incidence of TBE in humans in 2019. When sampling time coincides, TBEV detection in milk samples is as good a method as via flagged ticks, however bulk milk samples can be easier to obtain more frequently and regularly than tick samples. The minimal infectious rate (MIR) in ticks was 0.34% (CI 95% 0.15-0.64). Therefore, our results confirm that testing milk serves as a valuable tool to investigate the spatial distribution of TBEV at higher resolution and lower cost.

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