title: Analysis of climatic factors involved in the BTV-1 incursion in Central Italy in 2014.
abstract: In 2012, six years after the previous epidemic, Bluetongue virus serotype 1 (BTV-1) re-emerged in Sardinia causing a limited number of outbreaks. Due to impossibility of implementing a vaccination campaign, the BTV-1 then spread all over the island in 2013 with about 7,000 outbreaks and, in September 2013, the virus reached Central Italy, with a limited number of outbreaks located along the Tyrrhenian coast. The surveillance system in place in Italy detected viral circulation during the following winter, when a few seroconversions were notified. Starting from mid July 2014, a huge number of outbreaks were reported and the disease spread toward inland territories, affecting Umbria, Abruzzo and Marche. In 2014, BTV-1 affected areas where Culicoides species belonging to the Obsoletus and Pulicaris complexes were identified as main vectors. The analysis of temperature and rainfall in Central Italy revealed a significant warmer winter (2013-2014) and a cooler and rainy summer season (2014). These climatic aspects might have certainly favored the overwintering of the virus in local vector or host populations in the Tyrrhenian coast, and, then, the spread of the virus to the rest of Central Italy. However, the heavy circulation of BTV-1 and the severity of clinical outbreaks recorded leave a number of 'open questions' that are currently under investigations.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise 'G. Caporale'.
authors.forename: Annamaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conte
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goffredo
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Candeloro
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Calistri
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Curci
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Colaiuda
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quaglia
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mancini
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santilli
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Lorenzo
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tora
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Savini
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Savini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001819:Bluetongue / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D001820:Bluetongue virus / Q000502:physiology; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D012621:Seasons