Flaviviruses (genus Orthoflavivirus, family Flaviviridae) include a group of RNA viruses of global importance due to their ability to infect humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. Many of these viruses circulate naturally in wildlife through transmission involving insect vectors, making ongoing surveillance essential for understanding disease emergence and ecosystem health.
While flaviviruses are well studied in terrestrial animals and birds, their presence in marine mammals remains largely unexplored.
Pathologists at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, TVMDL Kátia Groch, DVM, PhD, DACVP, and Josué Díaz-Delgado, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVP, collaborated on the study “Molecular Survey for Flaviviruses in Wild Cetaceans from Brazil,” which aimed to investigate whether wild cetaceans play a role in flavivirus ecology.
Samples were collected in Brazil from 151 cetaceans representing 22 species. A total of 589 specimens, consisting of multiple tissues and serum samples, were screened for flavivirus RNA using a genus-level real-time PCR assay designed to detect a broad range of Orthoflavivirus members.
No Flavivirus genetic material was detected in any of the analyzed samples. The results might point to the notion that, if flaviviruses are present in these populations, they likely do so at very low frequency.
Learn more about this study by reading the full article in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
For more information on TVMDL’s testing options, visit tvmdl.tamu.edu or call the College Station lab at 1.888.646.5623.
