title: Co-circulation of Usutu virus and West Nile virus in a reed bed ecosystem.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mosquito-borne flaviviruses are a major public health threat in many countries worldwide. In Central Europe, West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV), both belonging to the Japanese encephalitis virus group (Flaviviridae) have emerged in the last decennium. Surveillance of mosquito vectors for arboviruses is a sensitive tool to evaluate virus circulation and consequently to estimate the public health risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mosquitoes (Culicidae) were collected at South-Moravian (Czech Republic) fishponds between 2010 and 2014. A total of 61,770 female Culex modestus Ficalbi mosquitoes, pooled to 1,243 samples, were examined for flaviviruses by RT-PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One pool proved positive for USUV RNA. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that this Czech USUV strain is closely related to Austrian and other Central European strains of the virus. In addition, nine strains of WNV lineage 2 were detected in Cx. modestus collected in the same reed bed ecosystem.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first detection of USUV in Cx. modestus. The results indicate that USUV and WNV may co-circulate in a sylvatic cycle in the same habitat, characterised by the presence of water birds and Cx. modestus mosquitoes, serving as hosts and vectors, respectively, for both viruses.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. rudolf@ivb.cz.
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rudolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Szent István University, Budapest, Hungary. Bakonyi.Tamas@aotk.szie.hu.|Viral Zoonoses, Emerging and Vector-Borne Infections Group, Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria. Bakonyi.Tamas@aotk.szie.hu.
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bakonyi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. oldrich.sebesta@khsbrno.cz.
authors.forename: Oldřich
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Šebesta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. mendel@ivb.cz.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mendel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. pesko@ivb.cz.
authors.forename: Juraj
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peško
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. betasova@ivb.cz.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Betášová
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. blazejova@ivb.cz.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Blažejová
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. venclikova.k@seznam.cz.
authors.forename: Kristýna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Venclíková
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. strakova.p@centrum.cz.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Straková
authors.affiliation: Viral Zoonoses, Emerging and Vector-Borne Infections Group, Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria. Norbert.Nowotny@vetmeduni.ac.at.|Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. Norbert.Nowotny@vetmeduni.ac.at.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nowotny
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences, Květná 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic. zhubalek@brno.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hubálek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001103:Arboviruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001717:Birds; D003465:Culex / Q000821:virology; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology; D017753:Ecosystem; D018349:Encephalitis Viruses, Japanese / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004671:Encephalitis, Arbovirus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D018177:Flavivirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014901:West Nile Fever / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014902:West Nile virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*