Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Rev Argent Microbiol 2021 Jun 17. Epub 2021 Jun 17.

Plataforma de Investigación en Salud Animal, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), La Estanzuela, Colonia, Uruguay. Electronic address:

We describe a case of neurotropic bovine astrovirus-associated encephalitis in a Jersey dairy cow from the department of San José, Uruguay. This represents the second case of this condition reported in the Southern Hemisphere. The cow was the only one affected in a herd of 70 cows, showing neurological signs with a 2-day clinical course, before dying spontaneously. Read More

Acta Trop 2021 Jun 12;221:106010. Epub 2021 Jun 12.

Ecodevelopment SA, Thessaloniki, Greece.

During the 2020 West Nile virus (WNV) transmission season, Greece was the most affected EU Member State. More than one third of human cases occurred in Serres regional unit in northern Greece, which is characterized by the presence of a major wetland (Kerkini lake and Strimon river). A total of 2809 Culex pipiens mosquitoes collected in Serres were grouped into 70 pools and tested for WNV. Read More

J Am Board Fam Med 2021 May-Jun;34(3):661-662

From the Family Medicine Residency, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX (SJT, RNS, ATH, PAF); Texas A&M School of Medicine, College Station, Bryan, TX (SJT, RNS).

The ever-evolving pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has the potential to drown out other viruses continuing to infect communities. To highlight this, we present 2 cases of fatal West Nile virus neuroinvasive disease that occurred within 2 weeks of each other. Since the first positive case of West Nile virus in the United States, there have been 2 epidemics in the past 2 decades, most often occurring in regions of North Texas and Southern California, which have been areas of high-incidence for COVID-19. Read More

Pathogens 2021 May 23;10(6). Epub 2021 May 23.

Arbovirus Research Team, Virology Department, Animal and Plant Health Agency (Weybridge), Woodham Lane, Addlestone KT15 3NB, UK.

Deer represent a major vertebrate host for all feeding stages of the hard tick in the United Kingdom (UK), and could play a role in the persistence of tick-borne pathogens. However, there have been few studies reporting the presence of spp. and in deer in the UK, and those that detected were unable to confirm the species. Read More

Viruses 2021 05 18;13(5). Epub 2021 May 18.

Jornada Experimental Range Unit, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA.

West Nile virus (WNV) is the most common arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) in the United States (US) and is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in the country. The virus has affected tens of thousands of US persons total since its 1999 North America introduction, with thousands of new infections reported annually. Approximately 1% of humans infected with WNV acquire neuroinvasive West Nile Disease (WND) with severe encephalitis and risk of death. Read More

Viruses 2021 May 21;13(6). Epub 2021 May 21.

Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 636921, Singapore.

Flaviviruses are vector-borne RNA viruses, many of which are clinically relevant human viral pathogens, such as dengue, Zika, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile and yellow fever viruses. Millions of people are infected with these viruses around the world each year. Vaccines are only available for some members of this large virus family, and there are no effective antiviral drugs to treat flavivirus infections. Read More

J Mol Evol 2021 Jul 31;89(6):329-340. Epub 2021 May 31.

School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.

Preventing and controlling epidemics caused by vector-borne viruses are particularly challenging due to their diverse pool of hosts and highly adaptive nature. Many vector-borne viruses belong to the Flavivirus genus, whose members vary greatly in host range and specificity. Members of the Flavivirus genus can be categorized to four main groups: insect-specific viruses that are maintained solely in arthropod populations, mosquito-borne viruses and tick-borne viruses that are transmitted to vertebrate hosts by mosquitoes or ticks via blood feeding, and those with no-known vector. Read More

J R Soc Interface 2021 May 26;18(178):20210049. Epub 2021 May 26.

School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs), such as dengue, Zika, West Nile virus (WNV) and tick-borne encephalitis, account for substantial human morbidity worldwide and have expanded their range into temperate regions in recent decades. Climate change has been proposed as a likely driver of past and future expansion, however, the complex ecology of host and vector populations and their interactions with each other, environmental variables and land-use changes makes understanding the likely impacts of climate change on VBDs challenging. We present an environmentally driven, stage-structured, host-vector mathematical modelling framework to address this challenge. Read More

Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports 2021 Apr 2;24:100566. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Laboratorio de Diagnóstico, Clinica Equina SRL, Alem 1698 - Capitan Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Northern Argentina hosts equine populations living under preserved natural areas and extensive breeding conditions, with limited access to veterinary care. Horses can be in contact with i) wildlife considered to be a potential reservoir of horse pathogens (e.g. Read More

PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2021 May 20;15(5):e0009445. Epub 2021 May 20.

Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Malaysia.

Background: Dengue fever is the most common mosquito-borne infection worldwide where an expanding surveillance and characterization of this infection are needed to better inform the healthcare system. In this surveillance-based study, we explored the prevalence and distinguishing features of dengue fever amongst febrile patients in a large community-based health facility in southern peninsular Malaysia.

Methods: Over six months in 2018, we recruited 368 adults who met the WHO 2009 criteria for probable dengue infection. Read More

Euro Surveill 2021 May;26(19)

The Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Brno, Czech Republic.

BackgroundDespite the known circulation of West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV) in Slovakia, no formal entomological surveillance programme has been established there thus far.AimTo conduct contemporaneous surveillance of WNV and USUV in different areas of Slovakia and to assess the geographical spread of these viruses through mosquito vectors. The first autochthonous human WNV infection in the country is also described. Read More

Euro Surveill 2021 May;26(19)

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.

BackgroundWest Nile virus (WNV) circulates in an enzootic cycle involving mosquitoes and birds; humans are accidental hosts.AimWe analysed human WNV infections reported between 2010 and 2018 to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to better understand WNV epidemiology.MethodsWe describe probable and confirmed autochthonous human cases of WNV infection reported by European Union (EU) and EU enlargement countries. Read More

Euro Surveill 2021 May;26(19)

Ministry of Health, Coordinating Center of Health Alerts and Emergencies, Madrid, Spain.

Cases of West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND) in Spain increased in summer 2020. Here we report on this increase and the local, regional and national public health measures taken in response. We analysed data from regional surveillance networks and the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network, both for human and animal West Nile virus (WNV) infection. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 May 12;11(1):10136. Epub 2021 May 12.

Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tokyo, 135-0064, Japan.

Pathogenic mosquito-borne viruses are a serious public health issue in tropical and subtropical regions and are increasingly becoming a problem in other climate zones. Drug repositioning is a rapid, pharmaco-economic approach that can be used to identify compounds that target these neglected tropical diseases. We have applied a computational drug repositioning method to five mosquito-borne viral infections: dengue virus (DENV), zika virus (ZIKV), West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIV). Read More

Commun Biol 2021 05 11;4(1):557. Epub 2021 May 11.

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston, QLD, Australia.

Dengue virus (DENV) is spread from human to human through the bite of the female Aedes aegypti mosquito and leads to about 100 million clinical infections yearly. Treatment options and vaccine availability for DENV are limited. Defective interfering particles (DIPs) are considered a promising antiviral approach but infectious virus contamination has limited their development. Read More

ILAR J 2021 May 5. Epub 2021 May 5.

Director of the SUNY Center for Environmental Health and Medicine, and Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, USA.

The study of many arthropod-borne pathogens requires high biosafety considerations, including the use of specialized facilities and equipment for arthropod containment. Mosquito- and tick-borne viruses such as yellow fever, West Nile, and Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses require facilities that are suitable for housing vertebrates. Multidisciplinary studies that incorporate the vector, vertebrate, and pathogens are essential for a complete understanding of the interactions between these transmission cycle components, especially if they aim to evaluate and model relative susceptibilities of different arthropods and vertebrates to infection and transmission between these. Read More

Insects 2021 Apr 29;12(5). Epub 2021 Apr 29.

Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México 04510, Mexico.

Given the significant impact of mosquito-borne flaviviruses (MBFVs) on both human and animal health, predicting their dynamics and understanding their transmission cycle is of the utmost importance. Usually, predictions about the distribution of priority pathogens, such as Dengue, Yellow fever, West Nile Virus and St. Louis encephalitis, relate abiotic elements to simple biotic components, such as a single causal agent. Read More

Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 2021 Jun 30;21(6):458-465. Epub 2021 Apr 30.

College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

A clinical and entomological investigation was performed to identify flavivirus infections in humans and mosquitoes in impoverished areas of Guerrero, a coastal state in southwestern Mexico. A total of 639 patients with acute febrile illness and 830 resting female mosquitoes in low-income communities of Guerrero in 2019 were tested for evidence of flavivirus infection. Sera were collected from all patients and screened at a dilution of 1:20 by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) using dengue virus (DENV)2. Read More

J Med Entomol 2021 May 3. Epub 2021 May 3.

Laboratorio de Insectos Vectores, Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE-CCT La Plata-CONICET), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), La Plata, Argentina.

Diseases caused by flaviviruses are a major public health burden across the world. In the past decades, South America has suffered dengue epidemics, the re-emergence of yellow fever and St. Louis encephalitis viruses, and the introduction of West Nile and Zika viruses. Read More

Am J Transplant 2021 05;21(5):1959-1974

Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Problem/condition: West Nile virus (WNV) is an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) in the family Flaviviridae and is the leading cause of domestically acquired arboviral disease in the contiguous United States. An estimated 70%-80% of WNV infections are asymptomatic. Symptomatic persons usually develop an acute systemic febrile illness. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 28;11(1):9213. Epub 2021 Apr 28.

Laboratory of Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, N18, W9, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0818, Japan.

West Nile virus (WNV), a member of the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) serocomplex group, causes lethal encephalitis in humans and horses. Because serodiagnosis of WNV and JEV is hampered by cross-reactivity, the development of a simple, secure, and WNV-specific serodiagnostic system is required. The coexpression of prM protein and E protein leads to the secretion of subviral particles (SPs). Read More

J Vet Sci 2021 May 5;22(3):e29. Epub 2021 Mar 5.

Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.

West Nile virus (WNV), a neurotropic arbovirus, has been detected in mosquitos, birds, wildlife, horses, and humans in Malaysia, but limited information is available on WNV infection in Malaysian pigs. We tested 80 archived swine serum samples for the presence of WNV antibody and West Nile (WN) viral RNA using ID Screen West Nile Competition Multi-species enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits and WNV-specific primers in reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assays, respectively. A WNV seroprevalence of 62. Read More

Braz J Microbiol 2021 Jun;52(2):1055

Laboratório de Virologia, Faculdade de Veterinária, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

Zootaxa 2021 Apr 20;4963(3):zootaxa.4963.3.1. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Vector Genetics and Control Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan..

Despite the importance of Culex species as major vectors of Rift Valley fever virus, West Nile virus and the microfilariae that cause lymphatic filariasis, information on these mosquitoes in Sudan is limited to works published 65 years ago in the former Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, where some species were only recorded from areas of the territory now known as South Sudan. In this paper, we provide updated information on Culex mosquitoes collected indoors during surveillance studies conducted along the Nile River in central and northern areas of Sudan between 2012 and 2019. Of 3,411 female mosquitoes collected in Khartoum and northern states along the river, 2,560 (75%) were specimens of Culex belonging to 12 species: Cx. Read More

Front Cell Neurosci 2021 9;15:662578. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology-Molecular Cell Physiology, Institute of Pathophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

At the end of 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was discovered in China, causing a new coronavirus disease, termed COVID-19 by the WHO on February 11, 2020. At the time of this paper (January 31, 2021), more than 100 million cases have been recorded, which have claimed over 2 million lives worldwide. The most important clinical presentation of COVID-19 is severe pneumonia; however, many patients present various neurological symptoms, ranging from loss of olfaction, nausea, dizziness, and headache to encephalopathy and stroke, with a high prevalence of inflammatory central nervous system (CNS) syndromes. Read More

Transbound Emerg Dis 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Laboratoire de Lutte contre les Maladies Infectieuses, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco.

Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and West Nile virus (WNV) are two important emerging Arboviruses transmitted by Aedes and Culex mosquitoes, typically Ae. caspius, Ae. detritus and Cx. Read More

J Med Case Rep 2021 Apr 19;15(1):206. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Ophthalmology, Ocular Immunovirology Service, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Background: This report describes the clinical course of choroidal neovascular membrane (CNV) in West Nile virus-associated chorioretinitis.

Case Presentation: A 28-year-old Italian woman was referred to our institution because of reduced visual acuity in the left eye dating back 4 months. A diagnosis of retinal vasculitis in the right eye and chorioretinitis with CNV in the left eye was made. Read More

Antiviral Res 2021 Jun 16;190:105074. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Department of Medical Sciences, Clinical Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address:

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a severe neurological disorder caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), a member of the Flavivirus genus. Currently, two vaccines are available in Europe against TBEV. However, TBE cases have been rising in Sweden for the past twenty years, and thousands of cases are reported in Europe, emphasizing the need for antiviral treatments against this virus. Read More

IDCases 2021 31;24:e01104. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Medicine, Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Introduction: West Nile Virus varies in presentation from asymptomatic to a febrile illness often associated with malaise, weakness and maculopapular rash. West Nile neuro-invasive disease often manifests as meningitis, encephalitis, and less commonly acute flaccid paralysis in a "polio-like" presentation. Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is a rare manifestation. Read More

Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis 2021 Jun 5;76:101646. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Institut Pasteur du Maroc, Service de Parasitologie et des Maladies Vectorielles, Place Louis Pasteur, Casablanca 20360, Morocco. Electronic address:

West Nile virus (WNV) was recently detected in Culex pipiens mosquitoes in Morocco. The aim of this study was to evaluate the seroprevalence of WNV in humans and in domestic birds in two regions of Morocco by the detection of IgG antibodies. Blood samples were obtained from 91 human patients and 92 domestic birds from September to December 2019. Read More