Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
J Gen Virol. 2014 Jun;95(Pt 6):1320-1329. doi: 10.1099/vir.0.063651-0. Epub 2014 Mar 26.
Mass bird mortality has been observed in North America after the introduction of West Nile virus (WNV), most notably massive die-offs of American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos). In contrast, WNV epidemic activity in Europe has been characterized by very low incidences of bird mortality. As the general susceptibility of European corvids to strains of WNV remains in question, European jackdaws (Corvus monedula) were inoculated with WNV strains circulating currently in Greece (Greece-10), Italy (FIN and Ita09) and Hungary (578/10), as well as a North American (NY99) genotype with a demonstrated corvid virulence phenotype. Infection with all strains except WNV-FIN resulted in mortality. Viraemia was observed for birds inoculated with all strains and virus was detected in a series of organs upon necropsy. These results suggested that jackdaws could potentially function as a sentinel for following WNV transmission in Europe; however, elicited viraemia levels might be too low to allow for efficient transmission of virus to mosquitoes.
在西尼罗河病毒（WNV）引入北美的后，大量鸟类死亡，尤其是美洲乌鸦（Corvus brachyrhynchos）的大量死亡。相比之下，WNV 在欧洲的流行活动的特点是鸟类死亡率非常低。由于欧洲鸦科鸟类对 WNV 株的普遍易感性仍存在疑问，因此对欧洲寒鸦（Corvus monedula）接种了目前在希腊（希腊-10）、意大利（FIN 和 Ita09）和匈牙利（578/10）流行的 WNV 株，以及具有证明的鸦科病毒毒力表型的北美（NY99）基因型。除了 WNV-FIN 外，所有毒株感染都导致了死亡。所有接种病毒的鸟类均出现病毒血症，尸检时在一系列器官中检测到病毒。这些结果表明，寒鸦可能可以作为监测欧洲 WNV 传播的哨兵；然而，引发的病毒血症水平可能太低，无法有效将病毒传播给蚊子。
