Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus, United Kingdom



Holding, Maya ORCID: 0000-0001-6666-5855, Dowall, Stuart D, Medlock, Jolyon M, Carter, Daniel P, Pullan, Steven T, Lewis, James, Vipond, Richard, Rocchi, Mara S, Baylis, Matthew ORCID: 0000-0003-0335-187X and Hewson, Roger
(2020) Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus, United Kingdom. EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES, 26 (1). pp. 90-96.

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Abstract

During February 2018-January 2019, we conducted large-scale surveillance for the presence and prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and louping ill virus (LIV) in sentinel animals and ticks in the United Kingdom. Serum was collected from 1,309 deer culled across England and Scotland. Overall, 4% of samples were ELISA-positive for the TBEV serocomplex. A focus in the Thetford Forest area had the highest proportion (47.7%) of seropositive samples. Ticks collected from culled deer within seropositive regions were tested for viral RNA; 5 of 2,041 ticks tested positive by LIV/TBEV real-time reverse transcription PCR, all from within the Thetford Forest area. From 1 tick, we identified a full-length genomic sequence of TBEV. Thus, using deer as sentinels revealed a potential TBEV focus in the United Kingdom. This detection of TBEV genomic sequence in UK ticks has important public health implications, especially for undiagnosed encephalitis.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Animals, Deer, Humans, Ixodidae, Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne, Encephalitis, Tick-Borne, RNA, Viral, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Phylogeny, Female, Male, United Kingdom, Sentinel Species
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 07 Jan 2020 10:30
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 00:11
DOI: 10.3201/eid2601.191085
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3069517