Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV): Causes, Transmission, Prevention, and Emerging Global Threats

Abstract

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a prominent vector-borne zoonotic disease threat to global agriculture and public health. The risks of introduction into non-endemic regions are tied to changing climate regimes and other dynamic environmental factors that are becoming more prevalent, as well as virus evolutionary factors and human/animal movement. This review aims to proffer a better understanding of the rift valley fever virus. RVFV being endemic to the African continent has caused large epizootics at the decadal scale since the early 20th century but has spread to the Arabian Peninsula and shows increasing patterns of interepizootic transmission on the annual scale. This virus can be transmitted by mosquitoes as well as through direct contact with infected tissues and can cause sporadic to widespread morbidity and mortality in domestic ungulate livestock as well as humans. High viremias in infected livestock moved from legal and illegal trade as well as in infected mosquitoes or human travelers can spread this virus worldwide. With increasing global commerce, it is likely RVFV will be introduced to new areas with suitable hosts, mosquito vector species, and environments. However, the strong mosquito component of RVFV epidemiology combined with advancements in vaccines, diagnostics, and virus evolutionary factors create opportunities for strategies to leverage models of connectivity among potential source and emerging regions to target surveillance and mitigation activities to reduce the risk of RVFV introduction, or contain the virus should it be introduced, into new regions.