Assessing the zoonotic potential of arboviruses of African origin

Several African arboviruses have emerged over the past decade in new regions where they caused major outbreaks in humans and/or animals including West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus and Zika virus. This raise questions regarding the importance of less known zoonotic arboviruses in local epidemics in Africa and their potential to emerge internationally. Syndromic surveillance in animals may serve as an early warning system to detect zoonotic arbovirus outbreaks. Rift Valley fever and Wesselsbronvirus are for example associated with abortion storms in livestock while West Nile-virus, Shuni virus and Middelburg virus causes neurological disease outbreaks in horses and other animals. Death in birds may signal Bagaza virus and Usutu virus outbreaks. This short review summarise data on less known arboviruses with zoonotic potential in Africa.