title: Foodborne transmission of nipah virus in Syrian hamsters.
abstract: Since 2001, outbreaks of Nipah virus have occurred almost every year in Bangladesh with high case-fatality rates. Epidemiological data suggest that in Bangladesh, Nipah virus is transmitted from the natural reservoir, fruit bats, to humans via consumption of date palm sap contaminated by bats, with subsequent human-to-human transmission. To experimentally investigate this epidemiological association between drinking of date palm sap and human cases of Nipah virus infection, we determined the viability of Nipah virus (strain Bangladesh/200401066) in artificial palm sap. At 22°C virus titers remained stable for at least 7 days, thus potentially allowing food-borne transmission. Next, we modeled food-borne Nipah virus infection by supplying Syrian hamsters with artificial palm sap containing Nipah virus. Drinking of 5×10⁸ TCID₅₀ of Nipah virus resulted in neurological disease in 5 out of 8 hamsters, indicating that food-borne transmission of Nipah virus can indeed occur. In comparison, intranasal (i.n.) inoculation with the same dose of Nipah virus resulted in lethal respiratory disease in all animals. In animals infected with Nipah virus via drinking, virus was detected in respiratory tissues rather than in the intestinal tract. Using fluorescently labeled Nipah virus particles, we showed that during drinking, a substantial amount of virus is deposited in the lungs, explaining the replication of Nipah virus in the respiratory tract of these hamsters. Besides the ability of Nipah virus to infect hamsters via the drinking route, Syrian hamsters infected via that route transmitted the virus through direct contact with naïve hamsters in 2 out of 24 transmission pairs. Although these findings do not directly prove that date palm sap contaminated with Nipah virus by bats is the origin of Nipah virus outbreaks in Bangladesh, they provide the first experimental support for this hypothesis. Understanding the Nipah virus transmission cycle is essential for preventing and mitigating future outbreaks.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Emmie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prescott
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Darryl
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Falzarano
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Trenton
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bushmaker
authors.affiliation: Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America; Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Feldmann
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Vincent J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Munster
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D028023:Arecaceae / Q000821:virology; D006224:Cricetinae; D004326:Drinking; D005260:Female; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D045464:Henipavirus Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D008647:Mesocricetus; D045405:Nipah Virus