Japanese encephalitis virus is maintained in a zoonotic cycle involving its mosquito vector and vertebrate hosts. The animal serving as the principal amplifying host, whose viremia allows massive viral amplification before human outbreaks, is:

• A Domestic pig ✓
• B Water buffalo
• C House sparrow
• D Bandicoot rat

Explanation

Pigs are the principal amplifying hosts of Japanese encephalitis virus: they develop high-titer prolonged viremia without severe disease and are commonly housed close to humans, permitting the Culex tritaeniorhynchus mosquito, which breeds in rice paddies, to transmit the virus onward. Wading birds act as reservoirs, while cattle and buffalo are dead-end hosts that do not sustain sufficient viremia for amplification.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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