TY - JOUR AU - García-Carrasco, José-María AU - Muñoz, Antonio-Román AU - Olivero, Jesús AU - Segura, Marina AU - Real, Raimundo T1 - Mapping the Risk for West Nile Virus Transmission, Africa T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2022 VL - 28 IS - 4 SP - 777 SN - 1080-6059 AB - West Nile virus (WNV) is an emergent arthropodborne virus that is transmitted from bird to bird by mosquitoes. Spillover events occur when infected mosquitoes bite mammals. We created a geopositioned database of WNV presence in Africa and considered reports of the virus in all animal components: reservoirs, vectors, and nonhuman dead-end hosts. We built various biogeographic models to determine which drivers explain the distribution of WNV throughout Africa. Wetlands of international importance for birds accounted for the detection of WNV in all animal components, whereas human-related drivers played a key role in the epizootic cases. We combined these models to obtain an integrative and large-scale perspective of the areas at risk for WNV spillover. Understanding which areas pose the highest risk would enable us to address the management of this spreading disease and to comprehend the translocation of WNV outside Africa through avian migration routes. KW - West Nile virus KW - arbovirus KW - epidemic KW - epizootic KW - infectious disease KW - pathogeography KW - zoonoses KW - viruses KW - Africa KW - vector-borne infections DO - 10.3201/eid2804.211103 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/4/21-1103_article ER - End of Reference