J Vet Sci.  2016 Dec;17(4):587-589. 10.4142/jvs.2016.17.4.587.

First detection of West Nile virus in domestic pigeon in Korea

• Kim CY
• Oh H
• Song J
• Hur M
• Suh JH
• Jheong WH
• Kim JT
• Oh HS
• Park JH

• KMID: 2412617
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2016.17.4.587

Abstract

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic pathogen that has spread throughout Europe and the United States. Recently, WNV spread to East and Southeast Asia, and great efforts have been made in South Korea to prevent the spread of WNV from neighboring countries. In this study, we diagnosed the first case of WNV in pigeons (Columba livia domestica) residing in cities using a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and confirmed it with nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis and sequencing. This is the first report to provide convincing evidence that WNV is present within South Korea.

Keyword

South Korea; West Nile virus; pigeon

MeSH Terms

Alternative Splicing
Animals
Bird Diseases/*epidemiology/virology
Case-Control Studies
*Columbidae
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/veterinary
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Republic of Korea/epidemiology
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary
West Nile Fever/epidemiology/microbiology/*veterinary
West Nile virus/*isolation & purification

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Representative primary RT-PCR (A) and nested PCR (B) for West Nile viruses (WNV). WNV positive samples are indicated by a 445 bp band (primary RT-PCR) or a 248 bp band (nested PCR). Neg, negative control; Pos, positive control; P11, positive Paju sample 11; M19, positive Mungyeong sample 19; B10, positive Busan sample 10; M2, negative Mungyeong sample 2.

• 

  Fig. 2 Phylogenic analysis of local WNVs based on partial E protein–coding sequences. Virus strains represented are indicated by the name following the GenBank accession number. Japanese encephalitis virus is included as an outlier. The ‘Pigeon 2014 Korea*’ is characterized in this study.

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