2026-04-17T03:49:50Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/requestoai:recercat.cat:20.500.12327/9682025-10-22T11:16:04Zcom_2072_4428com_2072_4427col_2072_487898
RECERCAT
author
Vidaña, Beatriz
author
Busquets, Núria
author
Napp, Sebastian
author
Pérez-Ramírez, Elisa
author
Jiménez-Clavero, Miguel Ángel
author
Johnson, Nicholas
other
Producció Animal
group
Sanitat Animal
2025-10-22T11:16:04Z
2025-10-22T11:16:04Z
2020-09-21
Vidaña, B., Busquets, N., Napp, S., Pérez-Ramírez, E., Jiménez-Clavero, M. Á. and Johnson, N. (2020) "The Role of Birds of Prey in West Nile Virus Epidemiology", Vaccines, 8(3), p. 550. doi: 10.3390/vaccines8030550.
2076-393X
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12327/968
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8030550
Reported human cases of West Nile virus (WNV) in Europe increased dramatically in
2018. Lineage 1 strains had been circulating in Euro-Mediterranean countries since the early 1990s.
The subsequent introduction of WNV lineage 2 has been responsible for the remarkable upsurge
of European WNV outbreaks since 2004, including the dramatic increase in human cases observed
since 2018. The virus exists in a natural cycle between mosquitoes and wild birds, with humans
and horses acting as dead-end hosts. As the key vertebrate hosts in the transmission cycle of
WNV, avian species have been the focus of surveillance across many countries. Raptors appear
particularly susceptible to WNV infection, resulting in higher prevalence, and in some cases exhibiting
neurological signs that lead to the death of the animal. In addition, birds of prey are known to
play an important role as WNV reservoir and potentially amplifying hosts of infection. Importantly,
raptor higher susceptibility/prevalence may indicate infection through predation of infected prey.
Consequently, they are considered important target species when designing cost-effective surveillance
for monitoring both seasonal WNV circulation in endemic countries and its emergence into new areas,
where migrating raptors may play a critical role in virus introduction. This review summarizes the
different aspects of the current knowledge of WNV infection in birds of prey and evaluates their role
in the evolution of the epizootic that is spreading throughout Europe.
eng
Attribution 4.0 International
The Role of Birds of Prey in West Nile Virus Epidemiology
info:eu-repo/semantics/article