West Nile virus (WNV) transmission routes in the murine model: Intrauterine, by breastfeeding and after cannibal ingestion

Since its first detection in New York in 1999, West Nile virus (WNV) has already caused over 1000 human deaths in the U.S. Although the virus is usually transmitted by mosquito bites; other routes, such as intrauterine and breastfeeding, have been occasionally reported in humans. To investigate alternative routes of WNV transmission, mice were inoculated during gestation and after delivery, and offspring from infected and non-infected mothers were interchanged and nursed as foster babies. Intrauterine and breastfeeding transmission was confirmed after WNV detection, by quantitative RT-PCR and viral culture infectivity, in babies born to infected mothers and in newborns that were nursed by mothers infected after delivery. All infected mothers, either experimentally or after cannibal ingestion of infected fostered babies, succumbed to the disease, as did most of their nursed babies. These results indicate that WNV is efficiently transmitted by vertical routes (intrauterine and lactation) and after cannibal ingestion of infected animals.