Emerg Infect Dis. 2017 Dec;23(12):1994-2001. doi: 10.3201/eid2312.171257.
Usutu virus (USUV) is an emerging mosquitoborne flavivirus with an increasing number of reports from several countries in Europe, where USUV infection has caused high avian mortality rates. However, 20 years after the first observed outbreak of USUV in Europe, there is still no reliable assessment of the large-scale impact of USUV outbreaks on bird populations. In this study, we identified the areas suitable for USUV circulation in Germany and analyzed the effects of USUV on breeding bird populations. We calculated the USUV-associated additional decline of common blackbird (Turdus merula) populations as 15.7% inside USUV-suitable areas but found no significant effect for the other 14 common bird species investigated. Our results show that the emergence of USUV is a further threat for birds in Europe and that the large-scale impact on population levels, at least for common blackbirds, must be considered.
乌苏图病毒（USUV）是一种新出现的蚊媒黄病毒，在欧洲的多个国家有越来越多的报告，在这些国家，USUV 感染导致了高的鸟类死亡率。然而，在欧洲首次观察到 USUV 爆发 20 年后，仍然没有对 USUV 爆发对鸟类种群的大规模影响进行可靠的评估。在这项研究中，我们确定了德国适合 USUV 循环的地区，并分析了 USUV 对繁殖鸟类种群的影响。我们计算出，在 USUV 适宜地区，普通乌鸦（Turdus merula）种群因 USUV 而额外减少了 15.7%，但对于其他 14 种调查的常见鸟类没有发现显著影响。我们的研究结果表明，USUV 的出现是欧洲鸟类的另一个威胁，至少对普通乌鸦而言，必须考虑其对种群水平的大规模影响。
