The aim of this review is to present briefly background information on 27 tick-borne viruses ("tiboviruses") that have been detected in Europe, viz flaviviruses tick-borne encephalitis (TBEV), louping-ill (LIV), Tyuleniy (TYUV), and Meaban (MEAV); orthobunyaviruses Bahig (BAHV) and Matruh (MTRV); phleboviruses Grand Arbaud (GAV), Ponteves (PTVV), Uukuniemi (UUKV), Zaliv Terpeniya (ZTV), and St.
Sand fly saliva is known to play an important role in the establishment of Leishmania spp. infection. As a consequence, identifying antigenic salivary proteins of different leishmaniasis vectors has currently become a major task in the field of anti-Leishmania vaccine development. The purpose of this work was to improve the knowledge of Phlebotomus perniciosus salivary proteins by combining two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) methodology, mass spectrometry and Western blotting (WB). Salivary protein profiles of three P.
Tick borne encephalitis (TBE) is endemic to eastern and central Europe with broad temporal and spatial variation in infection risk. Although many studies have focused on understanding the environmental and socio-economic factors affecting exposure of humans to TBE, comparatively little research has been devoted to assessing the underlying ecological mechanisms of TBE occurrence in enzootic cycles, and therefore TBE hazard.
Biting midges of the genus Forcipomyia (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) have recently been implicated as vectors of kinetoplastid parasites in the Leishmania enrietti complex. This study assesses susceptibility of one of the few successfully colonized Ceratopogonidae, Culicoides nubeculosus Meigen, to infection with Leishmania parasites infecting humans. While Leishmania infantum initially developed in the midgut of C. nubeculosus until 2 d postfeeding, parasite populations on day 3 were considerably reduced.
Tick-borne encephalitis is an emerging vector-borne zoonotic disease reported in several European and Asiatic countries with complex transmission routes that involve various vertebrate host species other than a tick vector. Understanding and quantifying the contribution of the different hosts involved in the TBE virus cycle is crucial in estimating the threshold conditions for virus emergence and spread. Some hosts, such as rodents, act both as feeding hosts for ticks and reservoirs of the infection.
Phlebotomine sandflies transmit pathogens that affect humans and animals worldwide. We review the roles of phlebotomines in the spreading of leishmaniases, sandfly fever, summer meningitis, vesicular stomatitis, Chandipura virus encephalitis and Carrión's disease. Among over 800 species of sandfly recorded, 98 are proven or suspected vectors of human leishmaniases; these include 42 Phlebotomus species in the Old World and 56 Lutzomyia species in the New World (all: Diptera: Psychodidae).
We developed serological tools for the detection of hantavirus-specific antibodies and hantavirus antigens in shrews. The work was focussed to generate Thottapalayam virus (TPMV)-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and anti-shrew immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. The mAbs against TPMV nucleocapsid (N) protein were produced after immunization of BALB/c mice with recombinant TPMV N proteins expressed in Escherichia coli, baculovirus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae-mediated expression systems.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites conducts continuous monitoring of the Earth's land surface and oceans. Recently, a sharp discontinuity (averaging 1.9°C) has been noticed at 60° N in both MODIS daytime and night-time land surface temperature (LST) products. This linear artefact arises because the CO2 high cloud test in the operational code for the generation of the MODIS cloud mask product is used only in the non-polar region (between 60° N and 60° S).
For a long time hantaviruses were believed to be exclusively rodent-borne pathogens. Recent findings of numerous shrew- and mole-borne hantaviruses raise important questions on their phylogenetic origin. The objective of our study was to prove the presence and distribution of shrew-associated Seewis virus (SWSV) in different Sorex species in Central Europe. Therefore, a total of 353 Sorex araneus, 59 S. minutus, 27 S. coronatus, and one S. alpinus were collected in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.