Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus of global importance. Over the last two decades, it has been responsible for significant numbers of cases of illness in humans and animals in many parts of the world. In Ukraine, WNV infections in humans and birds were first reported more than 25 years ago, yet the current epidemiological status is quite unclear. In this study, serum samples from over 300 equines were collected and screened in order to detect current WNV activity in Ukraine with the goal to estimate the risk of infection for humans and horses. Sera were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and virus neutralization assay (NT) to detect WNV-specific antibodies. The results clearly revealed that WNV circulates in most of the regions from which samples were obtained, shown by a WNV seroprevalence rate of 13.5% of examined horses. This is the first topical report indicating the presence of WNV infections in horses in Ukraine, and the results of this study provide evidence of a widespread WNV circulation in this country.
Highlights
West Nile virus (WNV) is an arbovirus that is maintained in an enzootic cycle between ornithophilic mosquitoes and certain wild bird species
Sera were screened by a commercial WNV competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which essentially detects flavivirus antibodies
ELISA-positive results were verified by virus neutralization tests (NT) to identify WNV or cross-reactivity specific reactions
Summary
West Nile virus (WNV) is an arbovirus that is maintained in an enzootic cycle between ornithophilic mosquitoes and certain wild bird species. A variety of different bird and mosquito species are involved in the WNV life cycle in various regions of the world [4]. Major outbreaks in humans and horses have been observed over the past few years in the Mediterranean area, e.g. in Italy; preferentially WNV lineage 1 sequences have been detected [17]. Besides tick-borne encephalitis, WNV disease, is the leading arboviral infection in the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine [22]. Clinical WNV infections have been detected in patients in Ukraine in the summer of 2011. The aim of the monitoring study (two-year-analysis) presented here was to investigate the prevalence of WNV specific antibodies in horse sera from 14 different Ukrainian regions (oblasts) by means of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and virus neutralization assays (NT). The results provide relevant information on the current WNV situation in Ukraine, involving an infection risk for humans and horses
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