title: Arboviral survey of mosquitoes in two northern Italian regions in 2007 and 2008.
abstract: Recently, Italy-particularly the Emilia-Romagna region-was the location of consecutive outbreaks of human diseases caused by the arboviruses chikungunya virus and West Nile virus. The two outbreaks, spread by different species of mosquitoes, were not related, but pointed out the lack of an arboviral surveillance program in this region. Beginning in 2007 entomological surveillance was initiated in the Emilia-Romagna region, and in 2008 the program was improved and extended at Lombardia region. Using CO(2)-baited traps, 65,292 mosquitoes were collected; pooled by date of collection, location, and species; macerated manually; and tested by reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction for the presence of alphaviruses, orthobunyaviruses, and flaviviruses. Amplicons were sequenced and employed for identification of viral RNA by basic local alignment search tool search in GenBank. Results of these assays showed (1) the presence of West Nile virus in two pools of Culex pipiens mosquitoes, (2) the presence of RNA of two orthobunyaviruses, Tahyna virus in a pool of Ochlerotatus caspius mosquitoes and Batai virus in a pool of Anopheles maculipennis mosquitoes, and (3) the presence of flavivirus RNAs in pools of Oc. caspius, Aedes albopictus, and Aedes vexans mosquitoes; the sequences of these amplicons were most closely related to flaviviruses that have been detected only in mosquitoes and had no recognized vertebrate host (Aedes flavivirus, Culex flavivirus, and Kamiti River virus).
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna B. Ubertini, Brescia, Italy. mattia.calzolari@izsler.it
authors.forename: Mattia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Calzolari
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonilauri
authors.forename: Romeo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bellini
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caimi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Defilippo
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maioli
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Albieri
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Medici
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Veronesi
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pilani
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gelati
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Angelini
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parco
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fabbi
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Barbieri
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lelli
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lavazza
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cordioli
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dottori
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001103:Arboviruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology*; D005416:Flavivirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D007558:Italy; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment