Seroprevalence of Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) in birds in Malaysia

Japanese Encephalitis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases caused by Japanese Encephalitis virus from family Flaviviridae and genus Flavivirus. The virus is transmitted through Culex mosquito primarily by Culex tritaeniorhynchus with ardeid birds as reservoir. Pigs and birds play an important role as the main vertebrate amplifier with human and horse as the dead-end host. Forty-five birds consisted of village chicken, jungle fowl cross and waterbirds were sampled in Tanjung Piandang, Perak, Jenderam Hulu, Sepang, Selangor and Putrajaya Wetland, respectively. Blood samples were processed and the serum were subjected to double-antigen sandwich ELISA for detection of antibody against Japanese Encephalitis virus (MyBiosource®). Out of forty-five sample, 28.89% (13/45) were positive for JEV antibodies. Based on location, Jenderam Hulu has the highest seroconversion (50%) followed by Tanjung Piandang (21.74%) and Putrajaya Wetland (20%). Based on age, young birds showed higher seroconversion (35.71%) than adult (25.81%). According to species, both jungle fowl cross and American flamingo has 50% seroconversion followed by village chicken with 21.74%. Male showed highest seroconversion (50%) followed by female (28.13%). Chi square test analysis revealed that there were no association between the risk factors and seroprevalence of JEV. In conclusion, there was presence of seroconversion against JEV in birds in Malaysia and all birds have similar risk to JEV infection in terms of age, sex, species and location. Further work should examine the genotype of the virus circulating in the birds’ population by molecular studies.

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