engleski

Tahyna virus – an unrecognized or neglected arbovirus in Croatia?

Background: Tahyna orthobunyavirus (TAHV) is a neglected mosquito-borne arbovirus. The vertebrate hosts for TAHV are hares, rabbits, hedgehogs and rodents, while Aedes vexans mosquitoes are the main vectors. Although TAHV is widespread throughout continental Europe, due to the lack of commercially available assays, human clinical cases are rarely reported. Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of TAHV in humans, animals and mosquitoes ('One Health') in Croatia. Methods: The study included: patients with neuroinvasive disease (NID) of unsolved etiology from continental and coastal Croatian regions (2017-2021 ; N=218) ; asymptomatic individuals from Zagreb and its surroundings (2020-2022 ; N=218) ; animals from Zagreb and its surroundings (2020- 2022 ; horses N=98, dogs N=70, cats N=24) and Aedes vexans mosquitoes collected in the Zagreb area (2020-2022 ; N=4456). TAHV neutralizing (NT) antibodies were detected using a virus neutralization test. Mosquito pools were tested for the presence of TAHV RNA using RT-PCR. Results: TAHV NT antibodies were detected in 20 (10.1%) patients with NID and 8 (3.7%) asymptomatic individuals. In two patients presented with meningitis, NT antibodies were detected in the CSF suggesting recent infection. While in patients with NID seroprevalence increased significantly with age from 1.8% to 24.4%, in asymptomatic individuals there was no difference in the seropositivity between age groups (2.5-7.7%). The majority of seropositive humans were residents of floodplains along the rivers in continental Croatia. In addition, a total of 29 (29.6%) horses, and 11 (11.7%) pet animals were found to be TAHV seropositive. No one mosquito pool tested positive for TAHV RNA. Conclusion: The presented results showed the presence of TAHV in Croatia. Further studies on a large sample of humans and animals are needed to confirm the prevalence of this neglected virus in the Croatian population.

Tahyna virus ; Croatia

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