New endemic West Nile virus lineage 1a in northern Italy, July 2012

L Barzon; M Pacenti; E Franchin; E Lavezzo; T Martello; L Squarzon; S Toppo; F Fiorin; G Marchiori; F Russo; M Cattai; R Cusinato; G Palù

doi:10.2807/ese.17.31.20231-en

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New endemic West Nile virus lineage 1a in northern Italy, July 2012
L Barzon^1,2 , M Pacenti² , E Franchin^1,2 , E Lavezzo¹ , T Martello² , L Squarzon¹ , S Toppo¹ , F Fiorin³ , G Marchiori³ , F Russo⁴ , M Cattai² , R Cusinato² , G Palù^1,2
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Affiliations: ¹ Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy ² Regional Reference Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Virology Unit, Padova University Hospital, Padova, Italy ³ Department of Transfusion Medicine, Venetian Area, Venice, Italy ⁴ Department of Public Health and Screening, Veneto Region, Venice, Italy

Correspondence:
G Palù
giorgio.palu unipd.it
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Citation style for this article: Barzon L, Pacenti M, Franchin E, Lavezzo E, Martello T, Squarzon L, Toppo S, Fiorin F, Marchiori G, Russo F, Cattai M, Cusinato R, Palù G. New endemic West Nile virus lineage 1a in northern Italy, July 2012. Euro Surveill. 2012;17(31):pii=20231. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.17.31.20231-en Received: 26 Jul 2012

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Abstract

We report here the first blood donation positive for West Nile virus (WNV) by nucleic acid amplification testing collected in north-eastern Italy in July 2012. Partial sequencing of the WNV RNA demonstrated identity with a WNV lineage 1a genome identified in the same area in 2011 and divergence from the strain responsible for the outbreak in northern Italy in 2008-09. These data indicate that WNV activity in northern Italy is occurring earlier than expected and that different WNV strains are circulating. .