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Krambrich J, Bole-Feysot E, Höller P, Lundkvist Å, Hesson JC. Vector competence of Swedish Culex pipiens mosquitoes for Usutu virus. One Health 2024; 18:100707. [PMID: 38500563 PMCID: PMC10945277 DOI: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2024.100707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Revised: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Usutu virus (USUV) is an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus with increasing prevalence in Europe. Understanding the role of mosquito species in USUV transmission is crucial for predicting and controlling potential outbreaks. This study aimed to assess the vector competence of Swedish Culex pipiens for USUV. The mosquitoes were orally infected with an Italian strain of USUV (Bologna 2009) and infection rates (IR), dissemination rates (DR), and transmission rates (TR) were evaluated over 7 to 28 days post-infection. The study revealed that Swedish Cx. pipiens are susceptible to USUV infection, with a gradual decrease in IR over time. However, the percentage of mosquitoes with the ability to transmit the virus remained consistent across all time points, indicating a relatively short extrinsic incubation period. Overall, this research highlights the potential of Swedish Cx. pipiens as vectors for USUV and emphasizes the importance of surveillance and monitoring to prevent future outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janina Krambrich
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Emma Bole-Feysot
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Patrick Höller
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Åke Lundkvist
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jenny C. Hesson
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Biologisk Myggkontroll, Nedre Dalälvens Utvecklings AB, Gysinge, Sweden
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Krambrich J, Akaberi D, Lindahl JF, Lundkvist Å, Hesson JC. Vector competence of Swedish Culex pipiens mosquitoes for Japanese encephalitis virus. Parasit Vectors 2024; 17:220. [PMID: 38741172 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-024-06269-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is an emerging mosquito-borne Orthoflavivirus that poses a significant public health risk in many temperate and tropical regions in Asia. Since the climate in some endemic countries is similar to temperate climates observed in Europe, understanding the role of specific mosquito species in the transmission of JEV is essential for predicting and effectively controlling the potential for the introduction and establishment of JEV in Europe. METHODS This study aimed to investigate the vector competence of colonized Culex pipiens biotype molestus mosquitoes for JEV. The mosquitoes were initially collected from the field in southern Sweden. The mosquitoes were offered a blood meal containing the Nakayama strain of JEV (genotype III), and infection rates, dissemination rates, and transmission rates were evaluated at 14, 21, and 28 days post-feeding. RESULTS The study revealed that colonized Swedish Cx. pipiens are susceptible to JEV infection, with a stable infection rate of around 10% at all timepoints. However, the virus was only detected in the legs of one mosquito at 21 days post-feeding, and no mosquito saliva contained JEV. CONCLUSIONS Overall, this research shows that Swedish Cx. pipiens can become infected with JEV, and emphasizes the importance of further understanding of the thresholds and barriers for JEV dissemination in mosquitoes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janina Krambrich
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, 75237, Uppsala, Sweden.
| | - Dario Akaberi
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, 75237, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Johanna F Lindahl
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, 75237, Uppsala, Sweden
- International Livestock Research Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam
- Department of Animal Health and Antibiotic Strategies, Swedish National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Åke Lundkvist
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, 75237, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jenny C Hesson
- Zoonosis Science Center, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, 75237, Uppsala, Sweden
- Biologisk Myggkontroll, Nedre Dalälvens Utvecklings AB, Gysinge, Sweden
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Wang ZJ, Zhang RR, Wu M, Zhao H, Li XF, Ye Q, Qin CF. Development of a live-attenuated chimeric vaccine against the emerging Usutu virus. Vaccine 2024; 42:1363-1371. [PMID: 38310016 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
Usutu virus (USUV) is an emerging arthropod-borne flavivirus that has expanded into multiple European countries during the past several decades. USUV infection in human has been linked to severe neurological complications, and no vaccine is now available against USUV. In this work, we develop a live-attenuated chimeric USUV vaccine (termed ChinUSUV) based on the full-length infectious cDNA clone of the licensed Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) vaccine strain SA14-14-2. In vitro studies demonstrate that ChinUSUV replicates efficiently and maintains its genetic stability. Remarkably, ChinUSUV exhibits a significant attenuation phenotype in multiple mouse models even compared with the licensed JEV vaccine. A single immunization with ChinUSUV elicits potent IgG and neutralizing antibody responses as well as T cell response. Passive transfer of sera from ChinUSUV-immunized mice confers significant protection against lethal homologous challenge in suckling mice. Taken together, our results suggest that ChinUSUV represents a potential USUV vaccine candidate that merits further development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng-Jian Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Rong-Rong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Mei Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Hui Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Xiao-Feng Li
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Qing Ye
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China.
| | - Cheng-Feng Qin
- State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China; Research Unit of Discovery and Tracing of Natural Focus Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100071, China.
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Erazo D, Grant L, Ghisbain G, Marini G, Colón-González FJ, Wint W, Rizzoli A, Van Bortel W, Vogels CBF, Grubaugh ND, Mengel M, Frieler K, Thiery W, Dellicour S. Contribution of climate change to the spatial expansion of West Nile virus in Europe. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1196. [PMID: 38331945 PMCID: PMC10853512 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45290-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging mosquito-borne pathogen in Europe where it represents a new public health threat. While climate change has been cited as a potential driver of its spatial expansion on the continent, a formal evaluation of this causal relationship is lacking. Here, we investigate the extent to which WNV spatial expansion in Europe can be attributed to climate change while accounting for other direct human influences such as land-use and human population changes. To this end, we trained ecological niche models to predict the risk of local WNV circulation leading to human cases to then unravel the isolated effect of climate change by comparing factual simulations to a counterfactual based on the same environmental changes but a counterfactual climate where long-term trends have been removed. Our findings demonstrate a notable increase in the area ecologically suitable for WNV circulation during the period 1901-2019, whereas this area remains largely unchanged in a no-climate-change counterfactual. We show that the drastic increase in the human population at risk of exposure is partly due to historical changes in population density, but that climate change has also been a critical driver behind the heightened risk of WNV circulation in Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana Erazo
- Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Luke Grant
- Department of Water and Climate, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Guillaume Ghisbain
- Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
- Laboratory of Zoology, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium
| | - Giovanni Marini
- Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige, Trento, Italy
| | | | - William Wint
- Environmental Research Group Oxford Ltd, Department of Biology, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK
| | - Annapaola Rizzoli
- Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige, Trento, Italy
| | - Wim Van Bortel
- Unit Entomology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
- Outbreak Research team, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Chantal B F Vogels
- Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Nathan D Grubaugh
- Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Matthias Mengel
- Department Transformation Pathways, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany
| | - Katja Frieler
- Department Transformation Pathways, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany
| | - Wim Thiery
- Department of Water and Climate, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Simon Dellicour
- Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
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Monath TP. Japanese Encephalitis: Risk of Emergence in the United States and the Resulting Impact. Viruses 2023; 16:54. [PMID: 38257754 PMCID: PMC10820346 DOI: 10.3390/v16010054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Japanese encephalitis virus is a mosquito-borne member of the Flaviviridae family. JEV is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia and is characterized by encephalitis, high lethality, and neurological sequelae in survivors. The virus also causes severe disease in swine, which are an amplifying host in the transmission cycle, and in horses. US agricultural authorities have recently recognized the threat to the swine industry and initiated preparedness activities. Other mosquito-borne viruses exotic to the Western Hemisphere have been introduced and established in recent years, including West Nile, Zika, and chikungunya viruses, and JEV has recently invaded continental Australia for the first time. These events amply illustrate the potential threat of JEV to US health security. Susceptible indigenous mosquito vectors, birds, feral and domestic pigs, and possibly bats, constitute the receptive ecological ingredients for the spread of JEV in the US. Fortunately, unlike the other virus invaders mentioned above, an inactivated whole virus JE vaccine (IXIARO®) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for human use in advance of a public health emergency, but there is no veterinary vaccine. This paper describes the risks and potential consequences of the introduction of JEV into the US, the need to integrate planning for such an event in public health policy, and the requirement for additional countermeasures, including antiviral drugs and an improved single dose vaccine that elicits durable immunity in both humans and livestock.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas P Monath
- Quigley BioPharma LLC, 114 Water Tower Plaza No. 1042, Leominster, MA 01453, USA
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Mingione M, Branda F, Maruotti A, Ciccozzi M, Mazzoli S. Monitoring the West Nile virus outbreaks in Italy using open access data. Sci Data 2023; 10:777. [PMID: 37935727 PMCID: PMC10630380 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-023-02676-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper introduces a comprehensive dataset on West Nile virus outbreaks that have occurred in Italy from September 2012 to November 2022. We have digitized bulletins published by the Italian National Institute of Health to demonstrate the potential utilization of this data for the research community. Our aim is to establish a centralized open access repository that facilitates analysis and monitoring of the disease. We have collected and curated data on the type of infected host, along with additional information whenever available, including the type of infection, age, and geographic details at different levels of spatial aggregation. By combining our data with other sources of information such as weather data, it becomes possible to assess potential relationships between West Nile virus outbreaks and environmental factors. We strongly believe in supporting public oversight of government epidemic management, and we emphasize that open data play a crucial role in generating reliable results by enabling greater transparency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Mingione
- Dept. of Political Sciences, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy
- Institute of Applied Computing "M. Picone" (IAC-CNR), Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Branda
- Unit of Medical Statistics and Molecular Epidemiology, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Rome, Italy.
| | - Antonello Maruotti
- Dept. of Law, Economics, Politics, and Modern Languages, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Ciccozzi
- Unit of Medical Statistics and Molecular Epidemiology, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Sandra Mazzoli
- STDs Centre, Santa Maria Annunziata Hospital, Florence, Italy
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Schwarz ER, Long MT. Comparison of West Nile Virus Disease in Humans and Horses: Exploiting Similarities for Enhancing Syndromic Surveillance. Viruses 2023; 15:1230. [PMID: 37376530 DOI: 10.3390/v15061230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) neuroinvasive disease threatens the health and well-being of horses and humans worldwide. Disease in horses and humans is remarkably similar. The occurrence of WNV disease in these mammalian hosts has geographic overlap with shared macroscale and microscale drivers of risk. Importantly, intrahost virus dynamics, the evolution of the antibody response, and clinicopathology are similar. The goal of this review is to provide a comparison of WNV infection in humans and horses and to identify similarities that can be exploited to enhance surveillance methods for the early detection of WNV neuroinvasive disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika R Schwarz
- Montana Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, MT Department of Livestock, Bozeman, MT 59718, USA
| | - Maureen T Long
- Department of Comparative, Diagnostic, & Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
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Sakudo A. Disinfection, Sterilization, and Decontamination of Pathogens in Medicine. Microorganisms 2023; 11:microorganisms11040990. [PMID: 37110413 PMCID: PMC10143117 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11040990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 03/23/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is putting our public health services under enormous strain [...].
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Affiliation(s)
- Akikazu Sakudo
- School of Veterinary Medicine, Okayama University of Science, Imabari, Ehime 794-8555, Japan
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