Biological and phylogenetic characteristics of West African lineages of West Nile virus

Fall, Gamou; Paola, Nicholas Di; Faye, Martin; Dia, Moussa; Freire, Caio César de Melo; Loucoubar, Cheikh; Zanotto, Paolo Marinho de Andrade; Faye, Ousmane; Sall, Amadou Alpha

doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0006078

Cited by 103 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…WNV L1 was first isolated in Africa [ 5 , 6 ] from where it spread to the Middle East and Europe during the mid-twentieth century, and finally to the United States (US) in 1999 [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Since 2004, a new WNV L2 is circulating in Europe [ 1 , 10 ] and is responsible for the unprecedented increase of WNV human cases registered since 2018 [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Birds of Prey in West Nile Virus Epidemiology

et al. 2020

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Reported human cases of West Nile virus (WNV) in Europe increased dramatically in 2018. Lineage 1 strains had been circulating in Euro-Mediterranean countries since the early 1990s. The subsequent introduction of WNV lineage 2 has been responsible for the remarkable upsurge of European WNV outbreaks since 2004, including the dramatic increase in human cases observed since 2018. The virus exists in a natural cycle between mosquitoes and wild birds, with humans and horses acting as dead-end hosts. As the key vertebrate hosts in the transmission cycle of WNV, avian species have been the focus of surveillance across many countries. Raptors appear particularly susceptible to WNV infection, resulting in higher prevalence, and in some cases exhibiting neurological signs that lead to the death of the animal. In addition, birds of prey are known to play an important role as WNV reservoir and potentially amplifying hosts of infection. Importantly, raptor higher susceptibility/prevalence may indicate infection through predation of infected prey. Consequently, they are considered important target species when designing cost-effective surveillance for monitoring both seasonal WNV circulation in endemic countries and its emergence into new areas, where migrating raptors may play a critical role in virus introduction. This review summarizes the different aspects of the current knowledge of WNV infection in birds of prey and evaluates their role in the evolution of the epizootic that is spreading throughout Europe.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Birds of Prey in West Nile Virus Epidemiology

et al. 2020

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“…West Nile virus (WNV) is an enveloped positive-sense single stranded RNA virus of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae, and it is classified in the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) antigen complex, with Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JE) and Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV) (Simmonds et al, 2017;Castillo-Olivares & Wood, 2004). Currently, the virus is classified into nine lineages (L1 -L9), with lineages 1 and 2 being the most described and associated with outbreaks of neurological disease in humans and horses (Fall et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiological surveillance of West Nile virus in the world and Brazil

Costa¹,

Bayeux²,

Silva

et al. 2020

Braz. J. Vet. Res. Anim. Sci.

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West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurovirulent mosquito-borne Flavivirus that is maintained in nature by a zoonotic transmissioncycle between avian hosts and ornithophilic mosquito vectors, mostly from the Culex genus. Until the 1990s, WNV wasconsidered to be an old-world arbovirus, but in 1999, WNV emerged in the United States (US) and spread rapidly, becoming amajor threat to public health. WNV adapted to the transmission cycle involving American mosquitoes and birds and reachedCentral and South America in subsequent years. In 2003, the National West Nile Fever Surveillance System was created in Brazilbased on serological screening of animals and sentinel vectors, as recommended by the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 2008, serological evidence of WNV infection in Brazilian horseshas been reported, and the circulation of WNV has been monitored through the regular serological screening of sentinel horsesand reporting of encephalomyelitis cases. Horses are highly susceptible to WNV infection, and outbreaks of neurologicaldisease among horses often precede human cases. In this regard, equine surveillance has been essential in providing earlywarning to public and animal health authorities in several countries, including Brazil. This demonstrates the need for animaland public health intervention programs to allocate resources to make veterinarians aware of the role they can play in thehuman surveillance processes by monitoring horses. This review discusses the importance of equine surveillance and the gapthat veterinarians can fill on the front line in human surveillance, in Brazil and worldwide, in the context of “One Health”

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“…Season 2018 has been very favorable for mosquitoes development; the dry period started with high temperatures unusually early in May (as opposed to 2019), extended into deep autumn and exceeded the total number of cases in all previous years (between 2010 and 2017) (Haussig et al, 2018). Important reason is that at least eight phylogenetic lineages of virus have been described (Fall et al, 2017), but only lineage 1 and 2 are associated with disease in humans (Petersen, 2013). In Europe, prior to the emergence of a lineage 2 in Hungary in 2004, sporadic cases and occasional outbreaks in animals and humans were due to lineage 1.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%