ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Rabies is a fatal viral disease that continues to threaten human and animal health in endemic countries. Rabies is endemic in animals in the Arabian Peninsula. Although Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Peninsula, little has been reported in the country about rabies situation. METHODS: A total of 199 animals suspected of rabies from 2010 to 2017, were examined for rabies infection using the Direct Fluorescent Antibody Test (DFAT). RESULTS: There were 158 (79.4%) positive cases of rabies of the examined animals, Most positive cases were found in Al-Qassim (63), Eastern region (48), Riyadh (25) and Al-Madina (10). Rabies was diagnosed in Procavia capensis and monkeys (Papio hamadryas hamadryas) in Saudi Arabia for the first time. In addition, infected livestock, especially camels, sheep and goat that pose a risk to veterinarians and farmers which increases the risk of potential zoonosis of rabies in Saudi Arabia. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that Rabies in Saudi Arabia remain a public health problem and dogs and camels are the main reservoir and continue to present health risks for both human and animals throughout the country, underscoring the importance of applying rabies control measures to animals and humans.
Subject(s)
Disease Reservoirs/veterinary , Endemic Diseases/veterinary , Rabies/veterinary , Zoonoses/epidemiology , Zoonoses/virology , Animals , Camelus/virology , Disease Reservoirs/virology , Dogs/virology , Goats/virology , Humans , Livestock/virology , Papio/virology , Public Health , Rabies/epidemiology , Saudi Arabia/epidemiology , Sheep/virologyABSTRACT
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N8) viruses have been detected in several continents. However, limited viral sequence data are available from countries in the Middle East. We report full-genome analyses of highly pathogenic H5N8 viruses recently detected in different provinces in Saudi Arabia.
Subject(s)
Influenza A Virus, H5N8 Subtype/genetics , Influenza in Birds/epidemiology , Influenza in Birds/virology , Animals , Birds/virology , Disease Outbreaks , Genome, Viral , Genomics/methods , High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing , Influenza A Virus, H5N8 Subtype/classification , Influenza A Virus, H5N8 Subtype/isolation & purification , Phylogeny , Public Health Surveillance , RNA, Viral , Saudi Arabia/epidemiologyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has been reported for the first time infecting a human being since 2012. The WHO was notified of 27 countries have reported cases of MERS, the majority of these cases occur in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Dromedary camels are likely to be the main source of Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERS-CoV) infection in humans. METHODS: MERS-CoV infection rates among camels in livestock markets and slaughterhouses were investigated in Saudi Arabia. A total of 698 nasal swabs were collected and examined with Rapid assay and rtRT-PCR. Ten MERS-CoV positive samples were subjected to full genomic sequencing. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity of the Rapid immunochromatographic assay (BioNote, South Korea) was evaluated as a diagnostic tool for MERS-CoV compared to rtRT-PCR. RESULTS: The results showed a high percentage of dromedaries (56.4%) had evidence for nasal MERS-CoV infection. Phylogenetic analysis of the ten MERS-CoV isolates showed that the sequences were closely related to the other MERS-CoV strains recovered from camels and human cases. Moreover, the results showed that 195 samples were positive for MERS-CoV by rapid assay compared to 394 positive samples of rtRT-PCR, which showed low rapid assay sensitivity (49.49%) while, the specificity were found to be 100%. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that these sites are a highly-hazardous to zoonotic diseases.
Subject(s)
Camelus/virology , Coronavirus Infections/veterinary , Livestock/virology , Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus/isolation & purification , Animals , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Coronavirus Infections/virology , Diagnostic Tests, Routine/methods , Immunoassay/methods , Nasal Cavity/virology , Prevalence , Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Saudi Arabia/epidemiology , Seasons , Sensitivity and Specificity , Topography, Medical , Whole Genome SequencingABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerged coronavirus that is associated with a severe respiratory disease in humans in the Middle East. The epidemiological profiles of the MERS-CoV infections suggest zoonotic transmission from an animal reservoir to humans. METHODS: This study was designed to investigate animal herds associated with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-infected patients in Saudi Arabia, during the last three years (2014-2016). Nasal swabs and serum samples from 584 dromedary camels, 39 sheep, 51 goats, and 2 cattle were collected. Nasal samples from camels, sheep, goats, and cattle were examined by real-time reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) to detect MERS-CoV RNA, and the Anti-MERS ELISA assay was performed to detect camel humeral immune response (IgG) to MERS-CoV S1 antigen infection. The complete genome sequencing of ten MERS-CoV camel isolates and phylogenetic analysis was performed. RESULTS: The data indicated that seventy-five dromedary camels were positive for MERS-CoV RNA; the virus was not detected in sheep, goats, and cattle. MERS-CoV RNA from infected camels was not detected beyond 2 weeks after the first positive result was detected in nasal swabs obtained from infected camels. Anti-MERS ELISA assays showed that 70.9% of camels related to human cases had antibodies to MERS-CoV. The full genome sequences of the ten MERS-CoV camel isolates were identical to their corresponding patients and were grouped together within the larger MERS-CoV sequences cluster for human and camel isolates reported form the Arabian Peninsula. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that camels are a significant reservoir for the maintenance of MERS-CoVs, and they are an important source of human infection with MERS.
