West Nile Virus Antibody Prevalence in Horses of Ukraine

Viruses

Ute Ziegler¹  Artem Skrypnyk⁴  Markus Keller¹  Christoph Staubach³  Maksym Bezymennyi⁴  Armando M. Damiani²  Nikolaus Osterrieder² 

[1] Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Südufer 10, D-17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany; E-Mails:;Institut für Virologie, Zentrum für Infektionsmedizin, Freie Universität Berlin, Philippstr. 13, D-14163 Berlin, Germany; E-Mails:;Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Seestraße 55, D-16868 Wusterhausen, Germany; E-Mail:;Institute of Veterinary Medicine, National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Donetska Str. 30, Kyiv, 03151 Ukraine; E-Mails:

关键词: West Nile virus;    neutralization;    ELISA;    serology;    horse;    Ukraine;    prevalence;    flavivirus;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v5102469

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.