Screening of mosquitoes for West Nile virus and Usutu virus in Croatia, 2015–2020

Klobučar, Ana (author), Savić, Vladimir (author), Curman-Posavec, Marcela (author), Petrinic, Suncica (author), Kuhar, Urška (author), Toplak, Ivan (author), Madić, Josip (author), Vilibić-Čavlek, Tatjana (author)

In the period from 2015 to 2020, an entomological survey for the presence of West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV) in mosquitoes was performed in northwestern Croatia. A total of 20,363 mosquitoes were sampled in the City of Zagreb and Međimurje county, grouped in 899 pools and tested by real-time RT-PCR for WNV and USUV RNA. All pools were negative for WNV while one pool each from 2016 (Aedes albopictus), 2017 (Culex pipiens complex), 2018 (Cx. pipiens complex), and 2019 (Cx. pipiens complex), respectively, was positive for USUV. The 2018 and 2019 positive pools shared 99.31% nucleotide homology within the USUV NS5 gene and both clustered within USUV Europe 2 lineage. The next-generation sequencing of one mosquito pool (Cx. pipiens complex) collected in 2018 in Zagreb confirmed the presence of USUV and revealed several dsDNA and ssRNA viruses of insect, bacterial and mammalian origin.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Usutu virus, West Nile virus, mosquitoes, Croatia, epidemiology, mosquito vectors
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: VF - Veterinary Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 6, iss. 2, art. 45
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-132322
• UDC: 636.09:616.9
• ISSN on article: 2414-6366
• DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed6020045
• COBISS.SI-ID: 58396419
• Publication date in RUL: 21.10.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Tropical medicine and infectious disease
• Shortened title: Trop. med. infect. dis.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2414-6366
• COBISS.SI-ID: 526463769

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.06.2021

Projects

• Funder: HRZZ - Croatian Science Foundation
• Project number: IP-2016-06-7456
• Name: Prevalence and molecular epidemiology of emerging and re-emerging neuroinvasive arboviral infections in Croatia
• Acronym: CRONEUROARBO