Novel Arterivirus Associated with Outbreak of Fatal Encephalitis in European Hedgehogs, England, 2019

Abstract

In the fall of 2019, a fatal encephalitis outbreak led to the deaths of >200 European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in England. We used next-generation sequencing to identify a novel arterivirus with a genome coding sequence of only 43% similarity to existing GenBank arterivirus sequences.

Keywords

• arterivirus
• viruses
• Arteriviridae
• European hedgehog
• Erinaceus europaeus
• outbreak