West Nile Virus Antibody Prevalence in Horses of Ukraine

Abstract

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus of global importance. Over the last two decades, it has been responsible for significant numbers of cases of illness in humans and animals in many parts of the world. In Ukraine, WNV infections in humans and birds were first reported more than 25 years ago, yet the current epidemiological status is quite unclear. In this study, serum samples from over 300 equines were collected and screened in order to detect current WNV activity in Ukraine with the goal to estimate the risk of infection for humans and horses. Sera were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and virus neutralization assay (NT) to detect WNV-specific antibodies. The results clearly revealed that WNV circulates in most of the regions from which samples were obtained, shown by a WNV seroprevalence rate of 13.5% of examined horses. This is the first topical report indicating the presence of WNV infections in horses in Ukraine, and the results of this study provide evidence of a widespread WNV circulation in this country.

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of West Nile Virus in Horses in Israel (1997–2013) - from Endemic to Epidemics

“…The high occurrence of WNV in horses in Israel in the last decade is also demonstrated by the high FOI detected in this study, with 12.3% and 22.3% FOI in 2002 and 2013, respectively. It could be argued that the increase in seroprevalence demonstrated in this study between 2002 and 2013 could be a result of different antibody detection methods, as the ELISA method used for the 2013 samples is considered more sensitive than the SN method used for the 2002 samples [31] ; however, it has previously been shown that WNV-neutralizing test was able to confirm 42 out of 49 ELISA-positive horse sera (86%) [32] . Furthermore, in addition to the ELISA method, serum neutralization (SN) test was also employed on the 2013 samples, as was previously performed to evaluate WNV seroprevalence in horses in Germany [33] , and excellent agreement was demonstrated between the two detection methods with a kappa of 86.4% (p value <0.001), further supporting the validity of the ELISA results and the conclusions drawn from them.…”

A Survey on West Nile and Usutu Viruses in Horses and Birds in Poland

“…For example, in Slovak Republic, the reported seropositivity was 8.3% in 2008–2011, 4.8% in 2012 and 0% in 2013 [ 42 , 43 ]. However, a higher proportion of seropositive horses (13.5%) was detected in 2010–2011 in Ukraine [ 44 ].…”

Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) fauna of the Velyka Dobron’ Game Reserve(West Ukraine) with new distribution data and medical risk assessment

“…pipiens are both potential vectors of West Nile virus that recently appear in more European countries (Table 2). In Ukraine this pathogen caused an epidemic in 1985 with 38 patients (Hubálek and Halouzka, 1999;Ziegler et al, 2013). Between 2007 and 2016 the total number of cases was 86.…”