Laboratory Animal Models for Rift Valley Fever Virus Disease

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arboviral pathogen of clinical and agricultural relevance. The ongoing development of targeted RVFV prophylactics and therapeutics is overwhelmingly dependent on animal models due to both natural, that is, sporadic outbreaks, and structural, for example, underresourcing of endemic regions, limitations in accessing human patient samples and cohorts. Elucidating mechanisms of viral pathogenesis and testing therapeutics is further complicated by the diverse manifestations of RVFV disease and the heterogeneity of the host response to infection. In this chapter, we describe major clinical manifestations of RVFV infection and discuss the laboratory animal models used to study each.