| clinical and neuropathological features of west nile virus equine encephalomyelitis in italy. | west nile (wn) virus infection is a mosquito-borne flavivirosis endemic in africa and asia. clinical disease is usually rare and mild and only in a few cases the infection causes encephalomyelitis in horses, fever and meningoencephalitis in man. we report here the clinical and pathological findings in an epidemic of the disease involving 14 horses from tuscany, italy. all cases were observed from august to october 1998. affected horses showed ataxia, weakness paresis of the hindlimbs and, in 6 c ... | 2000 | 10661382 |
| west nile virus epidemic in horses, tuscany region, italy. | during the late summer of 1998, veterinary authorities in tuscany, italy, received reports of cases of neurologic disease among horses residing in a large wetland area located in the provinces of florence and pistoia. west nile virus was isolated from two of the six horses that died or were euthanized. a retrospective epidemiologic study identified 14 clinical neurologic cases that occurred from august 20 to october 6 (attack rate of 2.8%). a serologic survey conducted over a 700-km2 area in sta ... | 2002 | 12498650 |
| potential vectors of west nile virus following an equine disease outbreak in italy. | in the late summer of 1998, an outbreak of equine encephalomyelitis due to west nile virus (wnv) occurred in the tuscany region of central italy. the disease was detected in 14 race horses from nine localities in four provinces: firenze, lucca, pisa and pistoia. the outbreak area included fucecchio wetlands (1800 ha), the largest inland marsh in italy, and the adjacent hilly cerbaie woodlands with farms breeding horses. to detect potential vectors of wnv, entomological surveys of fucecchio and c ... | 2004 | 15009441 |
| phylogenetic analysis of west nile virus isolated in italy in 2008. | in italy the first occurrence of west nile virus (wnv) infection was reported in tuscany region during the late summer of 1998. in august 2008, the wnv infection re-emerged in italy, in areas surrounding the po river delta, and involving three regions lombardy, emilia romagna and veneto. wnv was isolated from blood and organs samples of one horse, one donkey, one pigeon (columba livia) and three magpies (pica pica). the phylogenetic analysis of the isolates, conducted on 255 bp in the region cod ... | 2008 | 19040827 |
| re-emergence of west nile virus in italy. | in august 2008, west nile disease re-emerged in italy. the infection is affecting the north eastern regions and, as of november 2008, has caused 33 clinical cases and five fatalities in horses. until now, no deaths have been reported in birds. mosquitoes, blood, serum and tissue samples, from horses and birds, within and around the outbreak area, have been collected and tested by various methods both serologically and virologically. west nile virus strains have been isolated from blood samples o ... | 2010 | 19638165 |
| retrospective diagnosis of west nile virus infection in a patient with meningoencephalitis in tuscany, italy. | abstract we report a case of west nile virus (wnv) infection in a symptomatic woman living in tuscany in 2007. a retrospective analysis on cerebrospinal fluids drawn from people affected by neurological diseases with unknown etiology allowed the identification of a case of wnv infection before the wnv outbreak in the northeast italy in 2008. this emphasizes the importance of maintaining a high level of epidemiological surveillance all over the italian territory. | 2011 | 21756029 |
| Spatio-temporal patterns of distribution of West Nile virus vectors in eastern Piedmont Region, Italy. | ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: West Nile Virus (WNV) transmission in Italy was first reported in 1998 as an equine outbreak near the swamps of Padule di Fucecchio, Tuscany. No other cases were identified during the following decade until 2008, when horse and human outbreaks were reported in Emilia Romagna, North Italy. Since then, WNV outbreaks have occurred annually, spreading from their initial northern foci throughout the country. Following the outbreak in 1998 the Italian public health authority def ... | 2011 | 22152822 |
| west nile transmission in resident birds in italy. | migratory birds are considered one of the main sources for west nile virus (wnv) introduction into european countries. following the wnv epidemic in the late summer of 1998 in a marshy area of tuscany (padule of fucecchio), an extensive ornithological surveillance programme was carried out in the infected areas from 2006 to 2008. several species of migratory and resident birds were trapped, sampled and serologically tested. the results of this surveillance programme gave a useful indication of p ... | 2011 | 22212727 |
| toscana virus genome stability: data from a meningoencephalitis case in mantua, italy. | in july of 2013, samples from a patient with a neurological syndrome were collected from mantua hospital and sent to the national reference laboratory for arboviruses (national institute of health, rome). on the basis of the symptoms, serological and molecular assays were performed to diagnose either west nile virus (wnv) or toscana virus (tosv) infection. molecular and serological tests confirmed tosv infection. virus isolation was obtained from cerebrospinal fluid. a full genome sequence was d ... | 0 | 25514123 |
| a model of laboratory surveillance for neuro-arbovirosis applied during 2012 in the emilia-romagna region, italy. | arboviruses with neuroinvasive potential are gaining more attention due to the increased number of cases of autochthonous and imported infections in the human host. diagnosis of infection caused by these viruses in patients with central nervous system (cns) diseases is still underestimated and these infections represent an emerging threat to public health. we describe a model suitable for the laboratory surveillance of neuro-arbovirosis that was applied in the emilia-romagna region, north-easter ... | 2014 | 24329773 |
| west nile virus outbreak in sardinia, italy, in 2011. | west nile virus (wnv) is an enveloped, positive-sense rna virus belonging to the genus flavivirus, antigenically related to the japanese encephalitis complex in the family flaviviridae. the principal vectors are mosquitoes, in particular culex spp, and virus amplification seems to occur in susceptible birds that are the principal vertebrate reservoir hosts, whereas humans, horses and other vertebrates are considered incidental or dead-end hosts. the first italian equine outbreak was reported in ... | 2013 | 23324814 |
| the yield of temporary exclusion of blood donors, exposed to emerging infections abroad. | emerging infections abroad pose a threat to the safety of blood, donated by travelling blood donors. in this study, the yield of donor deferral after travelling was evaluated, by comparing the estimated numbers of infected donors returning from various affected areas. | 2013 | 22775433 |