miércoles, 30 de enero de 2013

Usutu Virus, Italy, 1996 - Vol. 19 No. 2 - February 2013 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Usutu Virus, Italy, 1996 - Vol. 19 No. 2 - February 2013 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Georges de La Tour (1593‒1652) La Femme à la puce (The Flea Catcher) (1638) Oil on canvas (90 cm × 120 cm) Musée Lorrain, Nancy. Photo P. Mignot

Usutu Virus, Italy, 1996

The Study

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References

Figure 1

Figure 2

Table

Suggested Citation

Herbert Weissenböck

, Tamás Bakonyi, Giacomo Rossi, Paolo Mani, and Norbert Nowotny

Author affiliations: Author affiliations: University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria (H. Weissenböck, T. Bakonyi, N. Nowotny); Szent István University, Budapest, Hungary (T. Bakonyi); University of Camerino, Matelica, Italy (G. Rossi); University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy (P. Mani); Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman (N. Nowotny)

Abstract

Retrospective analysis of archived tissue samples from bird deaths in the Tuscany region of Italy in 1996 identified Usutu virus. Partial sequencing confirmed identity with the 2001 Vienna strain and provided evidence for a much earlier introduction of this virus into Europe than previously assumed.

In early fall 1996, an episode of wild bird deaths occurred in the provinces of Florence and Pistoia (Tuscany region), Italy. Several bird species were affected; however, most observed bird carcasses were Eurasian blackbirds (Turdus merula). Several animals were subjected to necropsy, which predominantly showed swollen livers and spleens, necrotizing pericloacal dermatitis, and a variety of endoparasites. Bacteriologic, virologic, and toxicologic investigations produced no conclusive results. Formalin-fixed and paraffin wax–embedded tissue samples were archived. This event was reported in an Italian veterinary journal with local distribution and thus did not receive broad attention (1)
Five years later in late summer 2001, similar seasonal deaths of wild birds, again predominantly blackbirds, were observed in neighboring Austria (2). A particular strain of Usutu virus (USUV) was determined as the causative agent of this fatal bird disease outbreak, which recurred in Austria in subsequent years (3), and was later identified in Hungary (4), Switzerland (5), Italy (6), and Germany (7).
There were similarities between 1996 bird deaths in Tuscany and subsequent USUV-associated bird deaths in other areas of Europe. Thus, we retrospectively analyzed archived paraffin wax–embedded material from the Tuscany cases for USUV.