Isolation of Usutu Virus in Germany

Hanna Jöst German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Alexandra Bialonski German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Deborah Maus German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Vittorio Sambri German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Martin Eiden German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Martin H. Groschup German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Stephan Günther German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Norbert Becker German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit German Mosquito Control Association, Waldsee, Germany; Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany; Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy; Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald, Germany

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Usutu virus (USUV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that emerged 2001 in Austria and caused deaths in wild birds. In Germany, 70,378 female mosquitoes were captured in 2009 and 2010 and assayed for USUV. Virus was isolated in cell culture from one pool of Culex pipiens pipiens mosquitoes trapped exclusively in August 2010 in Weinheim, Germany. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a close relationship between the isolated USUV strain from Germany and a USUV strain from Austria, which was detected in a dead blackbird in 2004.

Author Notes

*Address correspondence to Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Strasse 74, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany. E-mail: jonassi@gmx.de

Authors' addresses: Hanna Jöst, German Mosquito Control Association, Ludwigstrasse 99, D-67165 Waldsee Germany, E-mail: hanna.joest@gmx.de. Alexandra Bialonski, Deborah Maus, Stephan Günther, and Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, Department of Virology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Strasse 74, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany, E-mails: bialonski@bni-hamburg.de, maus@bnitm.de, guenther@bni-hamburg.de, and jonassi@gmx.de. Vittorio Sambri, Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Azienda Ospedaliero–Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna Italy, E-mail: vittorio.sambri@unibo.it. Martin Eiden and Martin H. Groschup, Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Südufer 10, D-17493 Greifswald, Insel Riems, Germany, E-mails: martin.eiden@fli.bund.de and martin.groschup@fli.bund.de. Norbert Becker, German Mosquito Control Association, Ludwigstrasse 99, D-67165 Waldsee, Germany and University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 230 D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany, E-mail: norbertfbecker@web.de.

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