title: Prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis virus in a highly urbanized and low risk area in Southern Poland.
abstract: The knowledge of the exact distribution of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) endemic foci is crucial to plan and implement the optimal prevention of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), including a vaccination program. In Poland, however, there is still no data on the local distribution of TBEV in many areas of the country. Silesian agglomeration area (Southern Poland) is a highly urbanized and industrialized region of the country, where TBE cases are only sporadically recorded. In this study, a total of 4350 adult Ixodes ricinus were collected between September 2010 and June 2012 at twelve locations. The screening using real-time PCR was carried out on 854 tick pools of five specimens, and the positive pools were verified by pyrosequencing. TBEV was identified in 13 pools (1.52%) at 4 sites, of which 9 pools were verified by pyrosequencing. An overall pool prevalence was estimated at 0.31% ranging from 0.19% to 1.11% for positive locations [95% CI 0.16-0.52], which is comparable with regions with high number of TBE cases reported annually.
authors.affiliation: Department and Institute of Microbiology and Virology, The School of Pharmacy and Division of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drelich
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Disease Control, Department of Virology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Åshild
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Andreassen
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Disease Control, Department of Virology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Kirsti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vainio
authors.affiliation: Department and Institute of Microbiology and Virology, The School of Pharmacy and Division of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kruszyński
authors.affiliation: Department and Institute of Microbiology and Virology, The School of Pharmacy and Division of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. Electronic address: twasik@sum.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Tomasz J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Wąsik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000821:virology*; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018884:Ixodes / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Ixodes ricinus; Poland; Prevalence; Tick-borne encephalitis virus; Urban areas