Serological Evidence of USUTU Virus Occurrence in North-Eastern Italy

• Published in: Zoonoses and public health 2008-09, Vol.55 (7), p.361-367
• Main Authors: Lelli, R, Savini, G, Teodori, L, Filipponi, G, Di Gennaro, A, Leone, A, Di Gialleonardo, L, Venturi, L, Caporale, V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal diseases; Animals; Animals, Wild - virology; Antibodies, Viral - blood; antibody detection; arboviruses; bird diseases; Chicken; chickens; Chickens - virology; Communicable Diseases, Emerging - epidemiology; Communicable Diseases, Emerging - veterinary; Culicidae; disease detection; disease surveillance; Disease transmission; emerging diseases; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; epidemiological studies; Flavivirus; Flavivirus - immunology; Flavivirus Infections - epidemiology; Flavivirus Infections - transmission; Flavivirus Infections - veterinary; flocks; horse; Horses - virology; Humans; immunologic techniques; Italy - epidemiology; Japanese encephalitis virus; Neutralization Tests; plaque reduction neutralization test; Poultry; Poultry Diseases - epidemiology; Poultry Diseases - transmission; Poultry Diseases - virology; risk assessment; sentinel animals; Sentinel Surveillance - veterinary; seroconversion; Seroepidemiologic Studies; USUTU virus; vector-borne diseases; viral diseases of animals and humans; Viruses; West Nile virus; Zoonoses
• ISSN: 1863-2378; 1863-1959; 1863-2378
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2008.01146.x

In the recent years, USUTU virus (USUV), a flavivirus of the Japanese encephalitis virus complex, has been reported in Central Europe. As part of a systematic surveillance programme to monitor possible entrance and/or circulation of vector-borne viruses, since 2001, sentinel-chicken flocks were placed throughout the Italian territory nearby areas considered at risk of virus introduction. They have been periodically checked for the presence of antibodies against flaviviruses by indirect ELISA, plaque reduction neutralization test for USUTU, West Nile and tick-borne encephalitis viruses. In July 2007, a sentinel chicken in a flock of 20 animals located within the Ravenna province seroconverted to USUV reaching neutralizing titres up to 1 : 5120. A second chicken seroconverted to the same virus 2 months later. Although no virus was rescued from these animals and from wild or farm birds sampled in the area, these results still provided evidence of the circulation of USUV in north-eastern Italy.