Epidemiological Study on Rift Valley Fever Virus among Domestic Animals in Taiz Governorate (Yemen)

Abstract

Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV) is the causative agent of Rift Valley Fever (RVF), transmitted either by hematophagous insects that infect animals and humans or by direct contact with infected animals. This study was performed to preparing RVF antigen from liver of infected lamb to be used in detecting anti-RVFV antibodies by using Enzyme Linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and to study epidemiological prevalence of anti-RVFV IgM and IgG antibodies among animals which conducted in the Researches Center of Taiz University and Central Health Laboratory, Taiz Governorate, Southwestern Yemen. RVFV antigen was successfully prepared at a titer dilution of 1: 3200 by Chessboard (CB) ELISA assay. However, out of 188 samples, 147 samples were positive for ELISA assay, of which 12 (8.2 %) were positive for anti-RVFV IgM and 135 (91.8 %) for anti-IgG antibodies. The antigen was successfully produced, and successfully adhered to ELISA plates. Simple and inexpensive methods give good results. The results can be used to develop and refine predictive database for RVF transmission based on environmental and remote sensing data