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Page No. : 25-28

ABSTRACT

Japanese encephalitis caused by Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a major cause of infectious encephalitis in children and young adults. The life cycle of JEV involves water birds, pigs and mosquitoes. Although human JE cases are being reported from several Indian states, the epidemiology of JEV in pigs is lacking or in primitive stage in many states. Goa state is located in the west coast of India and human JE cases are reported sporadically in the state. However, the circulation of JEV in pigs is not being fully elucidated in the Goa state. Hence the current study was envisaged with the objective to identify the prevalence of JEV infection and to detect the circulating JEV genotype in pigs of Goa state by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based molecular tests. In the present study 600 pig blood samples collected from Goa were screened using TaqMan real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and conventional RT-PCR to detect the presence of JEV. It was found that three out of six hundred pig blood samples were positive for JEV RNA by TaqMan real time RT-PCR with a prevalence of 0.5%. However, the real time RT-PCR positive samples could not be amplified using conventional RT-PCR. The study could detect the circulation of JEV in pigs in the Goa state.

Keywords: Japanese encephalitis, goa, pigs, prevalence, TaqMan real time RT PCR