Japanese encephalitis virus is spread by mosquitos and currently found in Asia, the Western Pacific and Australia. Pigs are a primary host for the virus although horses and humans can also become ill from viral encephalitis.

Angela Bosco-Lauth, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, received a grant from the Swine Health Information Center and The Foundation for Food & Agriculture for a research project that will help enhance prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response capabilities if JEV were to arrive in the United States.

The overarching goal of the work is to help address the emerging threat that JEV poses to U.S. swine health. JEV, transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitos, can cause reproductive harm and other issues in swine breeding herds.

With collaborators at Virgina Tech, Bosco-Lauth plans to look at the capability of certain mosquitos to carry, acquire and transmit different genotypes of JEV. Then, her team will test whether one of the current Japanese encephalitis vaccines provides protection in pigs.

“We will also investigate whether West Nile Virus vaccination could also be a source of protection, since we know there is good cross-immunity between the two viruses,” said Bosco-Lauth. “The end goal is to try to provide quick and already available resources to swine producers in the event that we have an outbreak of JEV in the U.S.—to have an emergency response plan.”

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