A 9-year-old child from a rice-growing district presents with acute febrile encephalopathy during monsoon. MRI shows thalamitis. Japanese encephalitis virus is suspected. In the natural transmission cycle of this virus, the role of domestic pigs is that they act as:
- A Dead-end incidental hosts
- B Amplifying vertebrate hosts ✓
- C Primary vectors
- D Long-term reservoirs maintaining transovarial transmission
Correct answer: B. Amplifying vertebrate hosts
Explanation
Pigs develop high-titer viremia without disease and serve as amplifying hosts that infect the mosquito vector, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, which breeds in rice paddies and transmits virus to humans. Ardeid wading birds are the natural reservoirs. Humans and horses are dead-end hosts with low-level viremia and do not propagate the cycle, which kills option A. Transovarial transmission maintains some arboviruses vertically in mosquitoes, but pigs play no such role.
Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.
High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP
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