In September 2017, West Nile virus (WNV) lineage 2 was detected in Catalonia (Northern Spain) in northern goshawks by passive surveillance. The phylogenetic analyses showed that it was related to the Central/Southern European strains, evidencing WNV lineage 2 spread to Western Europe. WNV local transmission was later detected in bearded vultures housed at the Wildlife Recovery center where the goshawk was transferred to. Further studies, before the following period of high mosquito activity, indicated that WNV had circulated intensively in poultry and horses but only surrounding of the area where the virus was detected. In other areas of Catalonia, circulation of flaviviruses different to WNV was identified. Public Health investigations failed to detect WNV infection in humans.

Porras, Monica, María Teresa Martín, Mercè Soler, and Patri Vergara. Intestinal motor disorders associated with cyclical bacterial overgrowth in a rat model of enteritis. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 287: G58 -G64, 2004. First published February 12, 2004 10.1152/ajpgi.00513.2003.-The aims of this study were: 1) to obtain an experimental model reproducing the characteristics of chronicity and spontaneous relapses found in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and 2) to correlate these changes with intestinal motility and bacteria translocation. For this purpose, two groups of Sprague-Dawley rats were used: a treated group that received two subcutaneous injections of indomethacin (7.5 mg/kg) 48 h apart and a control group that received saline. Blood leukocytes, TNF, and fecal parameters were monitored for 90 days after treatment. In treated rats, a cyclic oscillation of blood leukocytes and TNF concomitant with an inverse correlation of fecal output was observed. Treated rats were then selected either during their highest or lowest blood leukocyte values for motor activity and microbiological evaluation. Controls were obtained in age-matched rats. Rats with high leukocyte levels showed a decrease of motor activity. In contrast, animals with low leukocyte levels presented hypermotility. Bacterial overgrowth accompanied by bacterial translocation was found in the group with high leukocytes, whereas no differences were observed between the control and indomethacin groups during the lowest leukocyte phase. We obtained a model of IBD characterized by a chronic cyclic oscillation of intestinal motility, flora, and inflammatory blood parameters. During the high-leukocyte stage, motor activity decrease is related to bacterial translocation. This phase is followed by a reactive one characterized by hypermotility associated with a decrease in both bacterial growth and leukocytes. However, as in IBD, this reaction seems unable to prevent a return to relapse. inflammatory bowel disease; gastrointestinal motility; gut flora; leukocytes INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE (IBD) in its more common forms, Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis, is characterized by presenting alternative phases of activity and quiescence and by its chronicity (11). Several studies (12,22,29) indicate an abnormal immune reactivity to intestinal flora as the cause for the inflammation, probably caused by impairment of the mucosal barrier function.Systemic administration of indomethacin in the rat has been used to cause inflammation of the small intestine, which presents some histopathological similarities to lesions found in CD (5, 37). It has been suggested that inhibition of cyclooxygenase activity induced by this drug alters mucosal permeability (7), facilitating the entry of bacteria and other harmful substances into the lamina propia and producing inflammation (24). Luminal bacteria seems to be critical to the induction of intestinal damage, because both germ-free rats (24) and animals treated with antibiotics (8) develop minimal lesions a...

To enhance early detection of West Nile virus (WNV) transmission, an integrated ecological surveillance system was implemented in Catalonia (north-eastern Spain) from 2007 to 2011. This system incorporated passive and active equine surveillance, periodical testing of chicken sentinels in wetland areas, serosurveillance wild birds and testing of adult mosquitoes. Samples from 298 equines, 100 sentinel chickens, 1086 wild birds and 39 599 mosquitoes were analysed. During these 5 years, no acute WNV infection was detected in humans or domestic animal populations in Catalonia. WNV was not detected in mosquitoes either. Nevertheless, several seroconversions in resident and migrant wild birds indicate that local WNV or other closely related flaviviruses transmission was occurring among bird populations. These data indicate that bird and mosquito surveillance can detect otherwise silent transmission of flaviviruses and give some insights regarding possible avian hosts and vectors in a European setting.

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