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Affiliation |
Center for Animal Disease Control |
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Associate Professor |
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Related SDGs |
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MEKATA Hirohisa
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Research Areas 【 display / non-display 】
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Life Science / Veterinary medical science
Papers 【 display / non-display 】
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Importance of continuous monitoring of bovine leukaemia virus infection on farms in bovine leukaemia virus-endemic areas of Japan. Reviewed International journal
Chikako Tani, Jiazhou Li, Hirohisa Mekata, Kazuhiro Morishita, Shingo Nakahata
Veterinary record open 12 ( 2 ) e70014 2025.12
Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)
BACKGROUND: Enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), caused by the bovine leukaemia virus (BLV), has exhibited increasing infection rates in Japan. While many farms implement various infection prevention measures, practical challenges-such as barn structure and availability of replacement cattle-can hinder farm purification efforts. This study aimed to determine whether continuous monitoring of BLV proviral load (PVL) in cattle on a farm could be effective in tracking BLV infection dynamics, identification of BLV infection sources and the dynamics of BLV PVL enrichment on-farm. METHODS: Bovine leukaemia virus infection was monitored over a 3-year period in approximately 10% of cattle at a test farm located in Miyazaki Prefecture, an endemic area for BLV in southern Kyushu, Japan. Eight calves and five adult cows were included to assess vertical and horizontal transmission of BLV. RESULTS: All calves developed new BLV infections, which were traced to the nursing/growing barn, the dry/new milking barn at the Miyazaki farm, and the point of deposit in Hokkaido, Japan, for rearing and artificial insemination. In BLV-positive adult cows, an increasing trend in PVL was observed. These findings indicate that continuous monitoring of a subset of cattle enables effective tracking of infection dynamics and identification of infection sources; thus, supporting the implementation of targeted prevention measures. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Despite heightened awareness among farmers regarding livestock quarantine, consistent and long-term control of BLV infections remains challenging. The results underscore the necessity of expert-guided management strategies tailored to BLV control, informed by ongoing infection monitoring. This study highlights husbandry management factors, including barn structure and cattle boarding practices, and provides new insights into the transmission routes of BLV in Japan.
DOI： 10.1002/vro2.70014
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Urine of Cats with Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome: A Potential Source of Infection Transmission Reviewed International journal
Hirohisa Mekata, Mari Yamamoto, Yasuyuki Kaneko, Kentaro Yamada, Tamaki Okabayashi, Akatsuki Saito
Pathogens 14 ( 3 ) 254 - 254 2025.3
Authorship：Lead author, Corresponding author Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：MDPI AG
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), caused by infection with the SFTS virus, is an emerging fatal tick-borne zoonosis endemic to East Asia. Although SFTS is a tick-borne disease, the virus can be transmitted from animals with SFTS without a tick bite. Direct transmission of the SFTS virus from animals to humans has been reported; however, the transmission route is unclear in some cases. Therefore, this study focused on the possibility of SFTS virus transmission through urine and attempted to isolate the infectious virus from the urine of animals with SFTS. Since more efficient cell isolation is needed to determine whether the SFTS virus is present, we first expressed dendritic cell-specific ICAM-3-grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN), the major receptor for the virus, in Vero cells (Vero-DC-SIGN cells) using a retroviral vector. When inoculated with equal amounts of the SFTS virus strain and SFTS-virus-infected animal serum, Vero-DC-SIGN cells had 42–136% and 20–85% more foci, respectively, than their parent Vero cells. After confirming that Vero-DC-SIGN cells were more suitable for the isolation of the SFTS virus, we investigated whether it could be isolated from the urine of eight cats and two dogs with SFTS. The virus was isolated from 25 μL of urine from two cats with SFTS. Considering that cats excrete 50–100 mL of urine per day, the transmission of the SFTS virus via the urine of cats with SFTS cannot be ruled out. Individuals examining or caring for cats suspected of having SFTS should be aware of the possibility of viral transmission via urine.
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Performance evaluation of an improved RAISING method for clonality analysis of bovine leukemia virus-infected cells: a collaborative study in Japan Reviewed International journal
Tomohiro OKAGAWA, Naomi NOJIRI, Hazuka YOSHIDA-FURIHATA, Naganori NAO, Misono TOMINAGA, Junko KOHARA, Satoshi GONDAIRA, Hidetoshi HIGUCHI, Yohei TAKEDA, Haruko OGAWA, Shinji YAMADA, Kenji MURAKAMI, Yasunori SUZUKI, Shinji TAKAI, Masaki MAEZAWA, Hisashi INOKUMA, Kaori SHIMIZU, Yasuo INOSHIMA, Tatsufumi USUI, Michihito TAGAWA, Mari YAMAMOTO, Hirohisa MEKATA, Mana ESAKI, Makoto OZAWA, Takahiro MATSUDAIRA, Naoya MAEKAWA, Shiro MURATA, Kazuhiko OHASHI, Masumichi SAITO, Satoru KONNAI
Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 87 ( 5 ) 551 - 558 2025.3
Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：Japanese Society of Veterinary Science
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), a retrovirus that is widespread worldwide, causes enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), a B-cell leukemia/lymphoma with a poor prognosis that ultimately results in death. In Japan, the number of cattle infected with this virus is increasing, and it is estimated more than 35% of cattle are currently infected. Since no vaccines or treatments against BLV infection are currently available, it is important to establish a method of early diagnosis for EBL to reduce economic losses caused by the disposal of EBL cattle in Japan, where a large number of expensive beef cattle are raised. We previously developed Rapid Amplification of the Integration Site without Interference by Genomic DNA Contamination (RAISING), a cost-effective, rapid, and sensitive method for the clonality analysis of BLV-infected cells. Despite its usefulness for the early diagnosis of EBL, RAISING had drawbacks preventing its practical application. Here, we report the development of an improved method, RAISING ver.2, and its performance. Compared to BLV clonality analysis using the previous method, RAISING ver.2 was found to maintain high accuracy and reproducibility despite its simplification. Moreover, its performance was also validated in a multicenter validation study. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that RAISING ver.2 can be fully utilized in clinical practice. Successful commercialization of a RAISING test kit could overcome the concerns of livestock farmers suffering from EBL, thereby promoting a stable supply of Japanese beef, both domestically and internationally.
DOI： 10.1292/jvms.25-0031
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Direct TaqMan assay for the detection and genotyping of bovine viral diarrhea virus types 1 and 2 Reviewed International coauthorship International journal
Shakir Ullah, Kosuke Notsu, Akatsuki Saito, Tamaki Okabayashi, Hirohisa Mekata, Norikazu Isoda, Satoshi Sekiguchi
Archives of Virology 170 ( 1 ) 1 - 10 2025.1
Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Abstract
Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), caused by bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), has a significant economic impact on affected farms worldwide. For effective disease control, it is crucial to select an appropriate vaccine based on the specific genotype of BVDV. Therefore, developing a rapid and reliable assay to detect and genotype BVDV is imperative for controlling the spread of disease. In this study, we developed a TaqMan assay to detect and genotype BVDV types 1 and 2 directly in bovine serum without extraction of RNA. The direct BVDV TaqMan assay effectively detected both BVDV1 and BVDV2 with confirmed specificity and showed no cross-reactivity with any of the other viruses tested, including bovine respiratory syncytial virus, bovine coronavirus, Akabane virus, bovine herpesvirus 1, bovine parainfluenza virus 3, bovine immunodeficiency virus, and bovine leukemia virus. The assay could detect the virus in serum samples with a titer as low as 10<sup>2</sup> TCID<sub>50</sub>/mL in two out of three trials for BVDV1 and all three trials for BVDV2, indicating that its sensitivity is equivalent to that of virus isolation. Our findings represent a significant advancement in BVDV detection and typing directly from bovine serum.DOI： 10.1007/s00705-024-06207-z
Other Link： https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00705-024-06207-z/fulltext.html
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MALDI-TOF MS analysis for detection of bovine coronavirus with tryptic peptides from viral proteins. Reviewed International journal
Katsuhiko Hayashi, Kenji Ohya, Tomoya Yoshinari, Shouhei Hirose, Souta Shimizu, Yuji Morita, Takahiro Ohnishi, Maiko Watanabe, Satoshi Taharaguchi, Hirohisa Mekata, Takahide Taniguchi, Yukiko Hara-Kudo
Journal of microorganism control 29 ( 4 ) 143 - 151 2024.12
Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)
Bovine coronavirus (BCoV）, a significant cattle pathogen causing enteric and respiratory diseases, is primarily detected using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Our objective was to develop a novel detection method for BCoV by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization‒time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS）. Peptide mass fingerprint analysis revealed that nucleocapsid (N）, membrane (M）, and hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) were three main BCoV proteins. Their tryptic peptides were used as target molecules for BCoV detection. When the tryptic digest of 107.0 viral copies was analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS, five peptides with relatively strong peaks were detected. The detection limit was between 105.0 and 106.0 copies per test for BCoV alone. To detect BCoV in the swab eluate, ultrafiltration purification achieved a detection limit between 106.0 and 107.0 copies per test, sufficient to detect BCoV-infected calves. Our findings offer valuable insights for BCoV detection by MALDI-TOF MS.
DOI： 10.4265/jmc.29.4_143
Books 【 display / non-display 】
MISC 【 display / non-display 】
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The Development of MALDI-ToF MS-based Analysis for the Direct Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasopharyngeal Swabs
林克彦, 吉成知也, 廣瀬昌平, 大屋賢司, 大西貴弘, 渡辺麻衣子, 田原口智士, 目堅博久, 谷口隆秀, 前田卓哉, 折原悠太, 川村利江子, 新井沙倉, 斎藤嘉朗, 合田幸広, 工藤由起子
日本薬学会年会要旨集(Web) 143rd 2023
Language：Japanese Publishing type：Research paper, summary (national, other academic conference)
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牛伝染性リンパ腫の診断と早期発症予測法の開発
富永みその, 今内覚, 岡川朋弘, 神谷可菜, 齋藤麻矢, 安富一郎, 目堅博久, 前川直也, 村田史郎, 大橋和彦
北海道獣医師会雑誌 67 ( 8 ) 2023
Language：Japanese Publishing type：Research paper, summary (national, other academic conference)
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MALDI-ToF/MSによるSARS-CoV-2の新規検出法の開発
廣瀬昌平, 吉成知也, 林克彦, 大屋賢司, 大西貴弘, 渡辺麻衣子, 田原口智士, 目堅博久, 谷口隆秀, 新井沙倉, 合田幸広, 工藤由起子
日本獣医学会学術集会講演要旨集 165th (CD-ROM) 2022
Language：Japanese Publishing type：Research paper, summary (national, other academic conference)
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次世代シーケンス(NGS)を用いた豚糞便中のウイルス検索:新しいBastrovirus遺伝子の発見
長井誠, 岡林環樹, 松鵜彩, 藤本佳万, 目堅博久, 中尾亮, 浅井鉄夫, 中川敬介, 伊藤壽啓, 野中成晃, 小原恭子, 猪島康雄, 水谷哲也, 三澤尚明
日本獣医学会学術集会講演要旨集 163rd 2020
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Encouragement of bovine leukemia control measure based on bovine leukemia virus proviral load
Hirohisa MEKATA
The Journal of Farm Animal in Infectious Disease 7 ( 4 ) 163 - 168 2018.12
Language：Japanese Publishing type：Article, review, commentary, editorial, etc. (bulletin of university, research institution)
Presentations 【 display / non-display 】
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Studies on emerging tick-borne viral diseases in companion and wild animals in Japan Invited International conference
Hirohisa Mekata
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Seminar for NCM Microbiology - Veterinary Infectious Diseases: (Hanoi, Vietnam) 2025.3.18 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Vietnam National University of Agriculture
Event date： 2025.3.18
Language：English Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech
Venue：Hanoi, Vietnam Country：Viet Nam
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伴侶動物と野生動物のSFTS
目堅博久
第2回RCGLID&CADIC共同セミナー (大分大学) 2024.12.2 大分大学グローカル感染症研究センター（RCGLID）
Event date： 2024.12.2
Language：Japanese Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech
Venue：大分大学 Country：Japan
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2021-23年度に宮崎⼤学で実施した伴侶動物の SFTS 検査
目堅博久, 金子泰之, 平井卓哉, 梅木一美, 梅北邦彦, 山田健太郎, 岡林環樹
第6回SFTS研究会 (札幌市) 2024.9.14 SFTS研究会
Event date： 2024.9.14 - 2024.9.15
Language：Japanese Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)
Venue：札幌市 Country：Japan
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Urine from cats with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome could be an infectious source International conference
Hirohisa Mekata, Yasuyuki Kaneko, Kentaro Yamada, Tamaki Okabayashi, Akatsuki Saito
The 4th Joint Meeting of Veterinary Science in East Asia (Obihiro) 2024.9.8 The Japanese Society of Veterinary Science
Event date： 2024.9.8 - 2024.9.9
Language：English Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)
Venue：Obihiro Country：Japan
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プロウイルス量を使った繁殖農場でのBLV対策と課題 Invited
目堅博久
第64回獣医疫学会学術集会(シンポジウム) (オンライン) 2024.8.31 獣医疫学会
Event date： 2024.8.31
Language：Japanese Presentation type：Symposium, workshop panel (nominated)
Venue：オンライン Country：Japan
Awards 【 display / non-display 】
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日本獣医学会獣医学奨励賞
2013.3 日本獣医学会
目堅 博久
Award type：Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc. Country：Japan
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第１５５回日本獣医学会大会長賞
2013.3 日本獣医学会
目堅 博久
Award type：Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc. Country：Japan
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2024年度宮崎銀行ふるさと振興助成事業 学術研究部門
2025.3 一般財団法人みやぎん経済研究所 伴侶動物におけるSFTSの実態解明
目堅博久
Award type：Award from publisher, newspaper, foundation, etc. Country：Japan
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日本産業動物獣医学会九州地区学会長賞
2014.10 日本産業動物獣医学会
目堅 博久
Award type：Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc. Country：Japan
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 【 display / non-display 】
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マダニが保有するＭ分節欠損フェヌイウイルスの生物学的意義の解明
Grant number：25K22364 2025.06 - 2027.03
日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 挑戦的研究(萌芽)
目堅 博久, 齊藤 暁, 松本 祐介
Authorship：Principal investigator
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動物フォーミーウイルスベクターの基盤構築と牛伝染性リンパ腫ワクチンの開発
Grant number：23K23765 2024.04 - 2026.03
独立行政法人日本学術振興会 科学研究費基金 基盤研究(B)
Authorship：Principal investigator
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ベトナムにおけるアフリカ豚熱の実践的な高感度診断法の開発と環境動態の解明
Grant number：22KK0097 2022.04 - 2027.03
独立行政法人日本学術振興会 科学研究費基金 国際共同研究加速基金(国際共同研究強化(B))
Authorship：Coinvestigator(s)
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Construction of animal foamy virus vector and development of enzootic bovine leukosis vaccine
Grant number：22H02500 2022.04 - 2026.03
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Authorship：Principal investigator
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Studies on anti-tumor potential of symbiotic retroviruses and their therapeutic applications
Grant number：20H03150 2020.04 - 2024.03
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Authorship：Coinvestigator(s)