West Nile Virus Lineage 2 Spreads Westwards in Europe and Overwinters in North-Eastern Spain (2017-2020).

ABSTRACT: West Nile virus lineage 2 (WNV-L2) emerged in Europe in 2004; since then, it has spread across the continent, causing outbreaks in humans and animals. During 2017 and 2020, WNV-L2 was detected and isolated from four northern goshawks in two provinces of Catalonia (north-eastern Spain). In order to characterise the first Spanish WNV-L2 isolates and elucidate the potential overwintering of the virus in this Mediterranean region, complete genome sequencing, phylogenetic analyses, and a study of phenotypic characterisation were performed. Our results showed that these Spanish isolates belonged to the central-southern WNV-L2 clade. In more detail, they were related to the Lombardy cluster that emerged in Italy in 2013 and has been able to spread westwards, causing outbreaks in France (2018) and

SUBMITTER: Aguilera-Sepulveda P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8951896 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature