Hattendorf Carolin, Cadar Dániel, Bosch Stefan, Becker Norbert, Lachmann Lars, Schmidt-Chanasit Jonas, Heitmann Anna, Lühken Renke
Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany.
Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Charlottenplatz 17, 70173 Stuttgart, Germany.
One Health. 2024 Aug 2;19:100868. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2024.100868. eCollection 2024 Dec.
The Usutu Virus (USUV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus originated in Africa. The virus circulates in Germany since 2010. It is primarily transmitted and maintained in the natural cycle by mosquitoes and primarily affects birds, particularly Eurasian blackbird (), leading to significant mortality. Several studies have reported a high co-infection rate of European birds with both USUV and haemosporidians. Haemosporidians are blood parasites which maintain an enzootic life cycle with birds via different arthropod vectors. This study conducted screenings of birds from Germany received through a citizen's science project for both, USUV and haemosporidians between 2016 and 2021. The prevalence of USUV reached its peak in 2018, when it was first detected throughout most parts of Germany rather than being limited to localised hotspots. Subsequently, USUV prevalence consistently declined. On the other hand, the prevalence of haemosporidians initially declined between 2016 and 2019, but experienced a subsequent increase in the following years, exhibiting a more or less inverse pattern compared to the prevalence of USUV. In 2020, a statistically significant positive association between both pathogens was found, which was also detected across all years combined, indicating if at all a weak relationship between these pathogens.
乌苏图病毒（USUV）是一种由蚊子传播的黄病毒，起源于非洲。自2010年以来，该病毒在德国传播。它主要通过蚊子在自然循环中传播和维持，主要影响鸟类，特别是欧亚黑鹂，导致大量死亡。几项研究报告称，欧洲鸟类感染USUV和血孢子虫的共感染率很高。血孢子虫是血液寄生虫，通过不同的节肢动物媒介与鸟类维持地方性生命周期。本研究对2016年至2021年期间通过公民科学项目收到的来自德国的鸟类进行了USUV和血孢子虫的筛查。USUV的流行率在2018年达到峰值，当时它首次在德国大部分地区被检测到，而不是局限于局部热点地区。随后，USUV的流行率持续下降。另一方面，血孢子虫的流行率在2016年至2019年期间最初下降，但在随后几年中出现了上升，与USUV的流行率呈现出或多或少相反的模式。2020年，发现这两种病原体之间存在统计学上显著的正相关，在所有年份综合起来也检测到了这种相关性，表明这些病原体之间如果存在关系的话也是很弱的。
