Virus isolation, genetic characterization and seroprevalence of Toscana virus in Algeria

Abstract

Toscana virus (TOSV; Bunyaviridae, Phlebovirus) is transmitted by sandflies of the genus Phlebotomus in the Mediterranean area. One strain of TOSV was isolated from a total of almost 23 000 sandflies collected in Kabylia, Algeria. The complete genome was sequenced, and phylogenetic studies indicated that it was most closely related with TOSV strain from Tunisia within lineage A, which also includes Italian, French and Turkish strains. A seroprevalence study performed on 370 sera collected from people living in the same area showed that almost 50% possessed neutralizing antibodies against TOSV, a rate much higher than that observed in Southern Europe. Sandfly species distribution in the study area suggests that the vector of TOSV in this region belongs to the subgenus Larroussius. These data support the rapid implementation of the diagnosis of TOSV in clinical microbiology laboratories to estimate the burden in patients presenting with neuroinvasive infections and febrile illness.

Seroprevalence of Sandfly‐Borne Phleboviruses Belonging to Three Serocomplexes (Sandfly fever Naples, Sandfly fever Sicilian and Salehabad) in Dogs from Greece and Cyprus Using Neutralization Test

“…As previously shown [26, 27], a cut-off titre ≥ 20-when used for 1000TCID 50 inoculum, is equivalent to a cut-off titre ≥ 40 when a 100 TCID 50 is used [28]. …”

Seroprevalence of Toscana virus in dogs from Kabylia (Algeria)

“…In Kabylia, Algeria, one strain of TOSV was isolated from sandflies. In this area, the human seroprevalence was 50%-a rate much higher than that observed in Southern Europe [3]. In Kabylia, dogs are exposed to the bites of sandflies, as evidenced by the importance of the incidence of canine leishmaniasis [4].…”

Phylodynamic analysis of the historical spread of Toscana virus around the Mediterranean

“…Other phylogenetic analyses of the genus Phlebovirus appear in the literature. However, some of these do not use full length genome sequences (Ayhan et al, 2017; Punda-Polic et al, 2012), use a smaller set of SFNV species group viruses (Alkan et al, 2013; Collao et al, 2009; Depaquit et al, 2010; Punda-Polic et al, 2012), or use neighbour joining trees (Alkan et al, 2015; Ayhan et al, 2017), Bayesian trees (Punda-Polic et al, 2012) or UPGMA trees (Collao et al, 2009) rather than maximum parsimony. This paper is the first to present SFNV species group taxonomy using the full set of complete genome segments and using maximum parsimony tree building techniques.…”