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Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Following the introduction of the West Nile virus (WNV) into eastern Germany in 2018, increasing infections have been diagnosed in birds, equines, and humans over time, while the spread of WNV into western Germany remained unclear. We screened 437 equine sera from 2018 to 2020, excluding vaccinated...

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Autores principales: Bergmann, Felicitas, Trachsel, Dagmar S., Stoeckle, Sabita D., Bernis Sierra, Joke, Lübke, Stephan, Groschup, Martin H., Gehlen, Heidrun, Ziegler, Ute
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8877243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35215837
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14020243
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author Bergmann, Felicitas
Trachsel, Dagmar S.
Stoeckle, Sabita D.
Bernis Sierra, Joke
Lübke, Stephan
Groschup, Martin H.
Gehlen, Heidrun
Ziegler, Ute
author_facet Bergmann, Felicitas
Trachsel, Dagmar S.
Stoeckle, Sabita D.
Bernis Sierra, Joke
Lübke, Stephan
Groschup, Martin H.
Gehlen, Heidrun
Ziegler, Ute
author_sort Bergmann, Felicitas
collection PubMed
description Following the introduction of the West Nile virus (WNV) into eastern Germany in 2018, increasing infections have been diagnosed in birds, equines, and humans over time, while the spread of WNV into western Germany remained unclear. We screened 437 equine sera from 2018 to 2020, excluding vaccinated horses, collected from convenience sampled patients in the eastern and western parts of Germany, for WNV-specific antibodies (ELISAs followed by virus/specific neutralization tests) and genomes (RT-qPCRs). Clinical presentations, final diagnoses, and demographic data were also recorded. In the eastern part, a total of eight horses were found WNV seropositive in 2019 (seroprevalence of 8.16%) and 27 in 2020 (13.77%). There were also two clinically unsuspected horses with WNV-specific antibodies in the western part from 2020 (2.63%), albeit travel history-related infections could not be excluded. None of the horse sera contained WNV-specific genomes. Eight horses in eastern Germany carried WNV-IgM antibodies, but only four of these showed typical clinical signs. These results underline the difficulty of detecting a WNV infection in a horse solely based on clinical signs. Thus, WNV circulation is established in the horse population in eastern Germany, but not yet in the western part.
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spelling pubmed-88772432022-02-26 Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Bergmann, Felicitas Trachsel, Dagmar S. Stoeckle, Sabita D. Bernis Sierra, Joke Lübke, Stephan Groschup, Martin H. Gehlen, Heidrun Ziegler, Ute Viruses Article Following the introduction of the West Nile virus (WNV) into eastern Germany in 2018, increasing infections have been diagnosed in birds, equines, and humans over time, while the spread of WNV into western Germany remained unclear. We screened 437 equine sera from 2018 to 2020, excluding vaccinated horses, collected from convenience sampled patients in the eastern and western parts of Germany, for WNV-specific antibodies (ELISAs followed by virus/specific neutralization tests) and genomes (RT-qPCRs). Clinical presentations, final diagnoses, and demographic data were also recorded. In the eastern part, a total of eight horses were found WNV seropositive in 2019 (seroprevalence of 8.16%) and 27 in 2020 (13.77%). There were also two clinically unsuspected horses with WNV-specific antibodies in the western part from 2020 (2.63%), albeit travel history-related infections could not be excluded. None of the horse sera contained WNV-specific genomes. Eight horses in eastern Germany carried WNV-IgM antibodies, but only four of these showed typical clinical signs. These results underline the difficulty of detecting a WNV infection in a horse solely based on clinical signs. Thus, WNV circulation is established in the horse population in eastern Germany, but not yet in the western part. MDPI 2022-01-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8877243/ /pubmed/35215837 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14020243 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bergmann, Felicitas
Trachsel, Dagmar S.
Stoeckle, Sabita D.
Bernis Sierra, Joke
Lübke, Stephan
Groschup, Martin H.
Gehlen, Heidrun
Ziegler, Ute
Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
title Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
title_full Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
title_fullStr Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
title_full_unstemmed Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
title_short Seroepidemiological Survey of West Nile Virus Infections in Horses from Berlin/Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
title_sort seroepidemiological survey of west nile virus infections in horses from berlin/brandenburg and north rhine-westphalia, germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8877243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35215837
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14020243
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