West Nile Virus in Common Wild Avian Species in Israel
Gili Schvartz,
Sharon Tirosh-Levy,
Shahar Bider,
Avishai Lublin,
Yigal Farnoushi,
Oran Erster,
Amir Steinman
Affiliations
Gili Schvartz
Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
Sharon Tirosh-Levy
Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
Shahar Bider
Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
Avishai Lublin
Department of Avian Diseases, Kimron Veterinary Institute, Beit Dagan 5025001, Israel
Yigal Farnoushi
Department of Avian Diseases, Kimron Veterinary Institute, Beit Dagan 5025001, Israel
Oran Erster
Department of Virology, Kimron Veterinary Institute, Beit Dagan 5025001, Israel
Amir Steinman
Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
In order to evaluate the contribution of different wild bird species to West Nile virus (WNV) circulation in Israel, during the months preceding the 2018 outbreak that occurred in Israel, we randomly sampled 136 frozen carcasses of a variety of avian species. Visceral and central nervous system (CNS) tissue pools were tested using WNV NS2A RT qPCR assay; of those, 15 (11.03%, 95% CI: 6.31–17.54%) tissue pools were positive. A total of 13 out of 15 WNV RT qPCR positive samples were successfully sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that all WNV isolates were identified as lineage 1 and all categorized as cluster 2 eastern European. Our results indicated that WNV isolates that circulated within the surveyed wild birds in spring 2018 were closely related to several of the isolates of the previously reported 2018 outbreak in birds in Israel and that the majority of infected birds were of local species.
