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Prevalence of tick‐borne encephalitis virus in Ixodes ricinus ticks from three islands in north‐western Norway |
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| Authors: | Arnulf Soleng Yohannes B. Okbaldet John H.‐O. Pettersson Susanne G. Dudman Preben Ottesen Inger Sofie Samdal Vik Kirsti Vainio Åshild Andreassen |
| Affiliation: | 1. Division of Infectious Disease Control, Department of Pest Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway;2. Division of Infectious Disease Control, Department of Virology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway |
| Abstract: | Tick‐borne encephalitis (TBE) is the most important viral tick‐borne disease in Europe and can cause severe disease in humans. In Norway, human cases have been reported only from the southern coast. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of tick‐borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks from the north‐western part of Norway. A total of 4509 ticks were collected by flagging in May and June 2014. A subpopulation of 2220 nymphs and 162 adult ticks were analysed by real‐time PCR and positive samples were confirmed by pyrosequencing. The estimated prevalence of TBEV was 3.08% among adult ticks from Sekken in Møre og Romsdal County and 0.41% among nymphs from both Hitra and Frøya in Sør‐Trøndelag County. This study indicates that TBEV might be more widespread than the distribution of reported human cases suggests. |
| Keywords: | tick‐borne encephalitis virus prevalence pooled sampling Ixodes ricinus |