Professor Ricardo Parreira (VBD – Vector borne diseases) and Dr. Sofia Seabra (THOP – TB, HIV and opportunistic diseases and pathogens), researchers at GHTM | IHMT-NOVA, participated in a recently published study in the Microorganisms journal, which analyzed the spread and genetic characterization of a strain of the West Nile Virus (WNV) in Portugal.
The study was led by Dr. Sílvia Santos-Barros from INIAV – National Agricultural and Veterinary Research Laboratory, with Diogo Maroco, a student from the Medical Microbiology Master’s program at NOVA, as the first author.
The research focused on a strain from the WNV lineage 1a, isolated from a wild bird – Astur gentilis – collected in mainland Portugal in September 2024. The results suggest that this strain originated in Africa and reached Portugal via the Spanish coast of Cádiz, confirming previously described patterns of the virus’s dispersion between Africa and Western Europe.
West Nile Virus was first detected in humans in Portugal in 2004, when two Irish ornithologists were infected during a trip to the Algarve. Since then, most records of WNV circulation in the country have been based on the detection of immunoglobulin M in horses, without the virus being isolated, which has hindered its characterization. However, through collaboration between research groups, several virus isolates have been obtained from mosquitoes, allowing for a more detailed study.
This new study provides a deeper understanding of the WNV circulation between Africa and Western Europe, offering updated data for future research on the spread of lineage 1a strains and highlighting the importance of ongoing epidemiological surveillance strategies.
Read the full article here.
