Introduction
Arboviruses are an important
public health problem in
Brazil, in especially
flaviviruses, including the
Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) and the Rocio
virus (ROCV), are especially problematic. These
viruses are transmitted to
humans or other
vertebrates through
arthropod bites and may cause
diseases with clinical manifestations that range from
asymptomatic infection,
viral hemorrhagic fever to
encephalitis.
Methods A serological
survey of
horses from various regions of
Brazil using an
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (
ELISA) with recombinant SLEV domain III
peptides and ROCV E
protein as
antigens. Results Overall, 415 (55.1%) of the 753
horses that were screened were seropositive for
flavivirus and, among them, monotypic reactions were observed to SLEV in 93 (12.3%) and to ROCV in 46 (6.1%). These results suggested that these
viruses, or other closely related
viruses, are infecting
horses in
Brazil. However, none of the studied
horses presented
central nervous system infection symptoms. Conclusions Our results suggest that SLEV and ROCV previously circulated among
horses in northeast, west-central and southeast
Brazil. .