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Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa
Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2020
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| _version_ | 1867613644152373248 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Venter, Marietjie |
| author_browse | Venter, Marietjie |
| author_facet | Venter, Marietjie |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2020. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/74827 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:39:25.358Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/74827 Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa Venter, Marietjie thopisangmotlou@gmail.com Motlou, Thopisang UCTD UCTD Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) Re-emerging infectious diseases Arboviruses Shuni virus (SHUV) Orthobunyavirus genus Peribunyaviridae family Neurological diseases One Health approach Epidemiology Molecular diagnostics Health sciences theses SDG-03 SDG-03: Good health and well-being Health sciences theses SDG-13 SDG-13: Climate action Health sciences theses SDG-15 SDG-15: Life on land Health sciences theses SDG-17 SDG-17: Partnerships for the goals Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2020. The thesis is under embargo and will only be accessible in September 2023. Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are an important global problem as they can lead to major disease outbreaks. These may result in disease manifestation with increased morbidity and mortality rates in different geographic areas. Arboviruses (arthropod-borne viral diseases) contribute significantly to such diseases worldwide. Shuni virus (SHUV) is a suspected re-emerging arbovirus of the Orthobunyavirus genus in the Peribunyaviridae family. It has previously been implicated in causing neurological diseases in horses, livestock, wildlife and potentially humans. This study aimed to use a One Health approach to investigate the epidemiology of SHUV in horses, humans, and mosquito vectors in South Africa. SHUV specific molecular tests were performed and evaluated for diagnostic and screening purposes. This was achieved by comparing the specificity and sensitivity of three PCRs i.e. SHUV specific HybProbe nested real-time RT-PCR, a TaqMan one-step SHUV real-time RT-PCR and a TaqMan Orthubunyavirus one-step genus specific real-time RT-PCR all targeting the nucleocapsid (S-segment) gene. A total of 24/1820 (1.3%) SHUV positive horse cases presenting with febrile and nervous disease were identified as SHUV between 2009-2019 using RT-PCR assays. Annually most cases were reported between January and April, with most horses displaying neurological signs (21/24, 87.5%), followed by death (12/24, 50%) and fever (7/24, 29.2%). The geographic distribution showed that SHUV cases could be identified in all nine provinces of SA with most cases detected in Gauteng (9/24 (37.5%)), followed by the Western Cape (4/24 (16.7%)). Phylogenetically, the SHUV strains clustered together with the SHUV index strain. The TaqMan Orthubunyavirus one-step RT-PCR additionally detected 7/129 (5.4%) Shuni-like human cases in 2017 and 3/215 (1,4%) Shuni-like mosquito vector pools in 2015 and 2016. This study suggested that SHUV is circulating in South Africa although less frequent relative to other arboviruses such as West Nile Virus (WNV) and Middleburg virus. Further investigations into the reservoir hosts, vectors and transmission cycle are needed to understand the epidemiology of SHUV in Africa especially in South Africa. Its importance as a human pathogen still needs to be defined. Therefore, this project also allowed us to determine the health issues related to the virus and potentially identifying improved options for control strategies. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.-CDC), Global Disease Detection grant for zoonotic arboviruses under Grant 1U19GH000571-01-GDD The Non-Research CoAg with the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) project 23, and the University of Pretoria Zoonotic Arbo and Respiratory virus (ZARV) The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant number VN81204343) the G7 Global Health Protection program (FKZ1368-1438TO08) The Leap-Agric EU/National Research Foundation (NRF) Cooperation agreement, project: Long term Europe-Africa Research Network. The Poliomyelitis Research Foundation (PRF) (Grant number:17/37) The University of Pretoria Postgraduate Bursary for master’s students the NRF of South Africa (Grant numbers: 107424 and 116385) em2025 Medical Virology MSc Restricted SDG-03: Good health and well-being SDG-13: Climate action SDG-15: Life on land SDG-17: Partnerships for the goals 2020-06-02T09:39:36Z 2020-06-02T09:39:36Z 2020 2020 Dissertation Motlou, T 2020, Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa, MSc Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/74827> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/74827 en © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD UCTD Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) Re-emerging infectious diseases Arboviruses Shuni virus (SHUV) Orthobunyavirus genus Peribunyaviridae family Neurological diseases One Health approach Epidemiology Molecular diagnostics Health sciences theses SDG-03 SDG-03: Good health and well-being Health sciences theses SDG-13 SDG-13: Climate action Health sciences theses SDG-15 SDG-15: Life on land Health sciences theses SDG-17 SDG-17: Partnerships for the goals Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa |
| title | Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa |
| title_full | Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa |
| title_short | Investigation of Shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans, horses, and mosquito vectors in South Africa |
| title_sort | investigation of shuni virus strains identified in neurological cases in humans horses and mosquito vectors in south africa |
| topic | UCTD UCTD Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) Re-emerging infectious diseases Arboviruses Shuni virus (SHUV) Orthobunyavirus genus Peribunyaviridae family Neurological diseases One Health approach Epidemiology Molecular diagnostics Health sciences theses SDG-03 SDG-03: Good health and well-being Health sciences theses SDG-13 SDG-13: Climate action Health sciences theses SDG-15 SDG-15: Life on land Health sciences theses SDG-17 SDG-17: Partnerships for the goals |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/74827 |