Chastel C, Bailly-Choumara H, Bach-Hamba D, Le Lay G, Legrand M C, Le Goff F, Vermeil C
Laboratoire de Virologie, Faculté de Médecine, Brest, France.
Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 1995;88(3):81-5.
The problem of arbovirus infections in Maghreb has been relatively neglected in the pst in spite of a rich diversity of biotopes, the presence of potential reservoirs and vectors, and their position on the flight path of the Palearctic-african bird migration systems, western branch. Moreover, West Nile virus has been isolated from southern Algeria since 1968. From 1979 to 1989, ticks were collected from wild birds, pigeons, bats, rodents, poultry, camels, wild boars, domestic mammals and man, and assayed for viruses. On the whole, 424 ticks were virologically studied from Morocco, 582 from Algeria and 601 from Tunisia. Four tick-borne arboviruses have been isolated so far: three from Morocco, Soldado (Nairovirus), Essaouria (Orbivirus) and Kala Iris (Orbivirus) from Ornithodoros (A.) maritimus ticks parasitizing marine birds, and one from Tunisia, Tunis (Phlebovirus), from Argas reflexus hermanni infesting domestic pigeons. Soldado virus may infect man working into colonies of gulls for ornithological or entomological purposes and this infection is associated with a self-limited febrile illness and pruritus. In addition, antibody to Essaouira virus was detected in a wild rodent in Morocco. On the contrary it is unlike that Tunis virus may infect man because A. r. hermanni is a strickly ornithophilic tick. However, Uukuniemi group antibody has been previously evidenced in wild rodents in Tunisia. Finally, it is not excluded that other, more pathogenic, arboviruses such as Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic fever might be accidentally introduced in this sensitive geographical area.
尽管马格里布地区生物群落丰富多样，存在潜在的宿主和病媒，且位于古北界 - 非洲鸟类迁徙系统西支的飞行路线上，但过去该地区虫媒病毒感染问题相对被忽视。此外，自1968年以来，在阿尔及利亚南部已分离出西尼罗河病毒。1979年至1989年期间，从野生鸟类、鸽子、蝙蝠、啮齿动物、家禽、骆驼、野猪、家养哺乳动物和人类身上采集蜱虫，并检测其中的病毒。总体而言，对来自摩洛哥的424只蜱虫、来自阿尔及利亚的582只蜱虫和来自突尼斯的601只蜱虫进行了病毒学研究。目前已分离出四种蜱传虫媒病毒：三种来自摩洛哥，索尔多多病毒（内罗病毒）、索维拉病毒（环状病毒）和卡拉鸢尾病毒（环状病毒），它们来自寄生于海鸟的海滨钝缘蜱（A.）；一种来自突尼斯，突尼斯病毒（白蛉病毒），来自寄生于家鸽的赫尔曼钝缘蜱。索尔多多病毒可能感染因鸟类学或昆虫学目的进入鸥群工作的人员，这种感染与自限性发热疾病和瘙痒有关。此外，在摩洛哥的一只野生啮齿动物体内检测到了索维拉病毒抗体。相反，突尼斯病毒不太可能感染人类，因为赫尔曼钝缘蜱是严格嗜鸟的蜱虫。然而，此前在突尼斯的野生啮齿动物体内已证实存在乌昆耶米病毒群抗体。最后，不排除刚果 - 克里米亚出血热等其他致病性更强的虫媒病毒可能意外传入这个敏感的地理区域。
