Characterization of virulent West Nile virus Kunjin strain, Australia, 2011
Date
2012
Authors
Frost, M.J.
Zhang, J.
Edmonds, J.H.
Prow, N.A.
Gu, X.
Davis, R.
Hornitzky, C.
Arzey, K.E.
Finlaison, D.
Hick, P.
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Journal article
Citation
Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2012; 18(5):792-800
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Abstract
To determine the cause of an unprecedented outbreak of encephalitis among horses in New South Wales, Australia, in 2011, we performed genomic sequencing of viruses isolated from affected horses and mosquitoes. Results showed that most of the cases were caused by a variant West Nile virus (WNV) strain, WNVNSW2011, that is most closely related to WNV Kunjin (WNVKUN), the indigenous WNV strain in Australia. Studies in mouse models for WNV pathogenesis showed that WNVNSW2011 is substantially more neuroinvasive than the prototype WNVKUN strain. In WNVNSW2011, this apparent increase in virulence over that of the prototype strain correlated with at least 2 known markers of WNV virulence that are not found in WNVKUN. Additional studies are needed to determine the relationship of the WNVNSW2011 strain to currently and previously circulating WNVKUN strains and to confirm the cause of the increased virulence of this emerging WNV strain.
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Copyright 2012 The Authors . Emerging Infectious Diseases is an open access journal in the public domain. All content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Materials published in EID, including text, figures, tables, and photographs, can be reprinted or reused although the journal requests a proper citation be included for its content and users clearly indicate what, if any, changes have been made (https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/about)