TY - JOUR AU - Esser, Helen AU - Lim, Stephanie AU - de Vries, Ankje AU - Sprong, Hein AU - Dekker, Dinant AU - Pascoe, Emily AU - Bakker, Julian AU - Suin, Vanessa AU - Franz, Eelco AU - Martina, Byron E.E. AU - Koenraadt, Constantianus J.M. T1 - Continued Circulation of Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Variants and Detection of Novel Transmission Foci, the Netherlands T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2022 VL - 28 IS - 12 SP - 2416 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is an emerging pathogen that was first detected in ticks and humans in the Netherlands in 2015 (ticks) and 2016 (humans). To learn more about its distribution and prevalence in the Netherlands, we conducted large-scale surveillance in ticks and rodents during August 2018–September 2020. We tested 320 wild rodents and >46,000 ticks from 48 locations considered to be at high risk for TBEV circulation. We found TBEV RNA in 3 rodents (0.9%) and 7 tick pools (minimum infection rate 0.02%) from 5 geographically distinct foci. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that 3 different variants of the TBEV-Eu subtype circulate in the Netherlands, suggesting multiple independent introductions. Combined with recent human cases outside known TBEV hotspots, our data demonstrate that the distribution of TBEV in the Netherlands is more widespread than previously thought. KW - tick-borne encephalitis virus KW - tick-borne encephalitis KW - Ixodes ricinus KW - rodent KW - human cases KW - antibodies KW - monitoring KW - surveillance KW - sentinel KW - tickborne disease KW - distribution KW - emergence KW - arbovirus KW - Apodemus KW - Myodes KW - Microtus KW - vector-borne infections KW - viruses KW - the Netherlands DO - 10.3201/eid2812.220552 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/12/22-0552_article ER - End of Reference