West Nile virus circulation in South-Eastern Romania, 2011 to 2013

Euro Surveill. 2015 May 21;20(20):21130. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.es2015.20.20.21130.

Abstract

Lineage 2 West Nile virus (WNV), previously found only in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, was identified in Hungary in 2004 and has rapidly expanded in Europe in the past decade. Following a significant outbreak of West Nile fever with neurological cases caused by lineage 1 WNV in Romania in 1996, scattered cases have been recorded in the south-east of the country in each transmission season. Another outbreak, affecting a larger area and caused by lineage 2 WNV, was recorded in 2010. We analysed human sera from neuroinvasive West Nile fever cases and mosquitoes, sampled in south-eastern Romania between 2011 and 2013, for the presence of WNV genome, and obtained partial NS5 and envelope glycoprotein sequences. Human- and mosquito-derived WNV sequences were highly similar (99%) to Volgograd 2007 lineage 2 WNV and differed from isolates previously detected in central and southern Europe. WNV was detected in one pool of Culex pipiens s.l. males, documenting vertical transmission. Lineage 4 WNV, of unknown pathogenicity to mammals, was found in the amphibian-feeding mosquito Uranotaenia unguiculata from the Danube Delta. Our results present molecular evidence for the maintenance of the same isolates of Volgograd 2007-like lineage 2 WNV in south-eastern Romania between 2011 and 2013.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Culicidae / virology*
  • Disease Outbreaks*
  • Genome
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Viral
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Romania / epidemiology
  • West Nile Fever / blood
  • West Nile Fever / epidemiology*
  • West Nile Fever / transmission
  • West Nile virus / classification
  • West Nile virus / genetics
  • West Nile virus / isolation & purification*

Substances

  • RNA, Viral