Emerging Infectious Diseases (Jan 2020)

Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus, United Kingdom

  • Maya Holding,
  • Stuart D. Dowall,
  • Jolyon M. Medlock,
  • Daniel P. Carter,
  • Steven T. Pullan,
  • James Lewis,
  • Richard Vipond,
  • Mara S. Rocchi,
  • Matthew Baylis,
  • Roger Hewson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2601.191085
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 1
pp. 90 – 96

Abstract

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During February 2018–January 2019, we conducted large-scale surveillance for the presence and prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and louping ill virus (LIV) in sentinel animals and ticks in the United Kingdom. Serum was collected from 1,309 deer culled across England and Scotland. Overall, 4% of samples were ELISA-positive for the TBEV serocomplex. A focus in the Thetford Forest area had the highest proportion (47.7%) of seropositive samples. Ticks collected from culled deer within seropositive regions were tested for viral RNA; 5 of 2,041 ticks tested positive by LIV/TBEV real-time reverse transcription PCR, all from within the Thetford Forest area. From 1 tick, we identified a full-length genomic sequence of TBEV. Thus, using deer as sentinels revealed a potential TBEV focus in the United Kingdom. This detection of TBEV genomic sequence in UK ticks has important public health implications, especially for undiagnosed encephalitis.

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