SEROPREVALENCE OF IgG ANTIBODIES AGAINST BORRELIA BURGDORFERI IN DOGS IN BELGRADE AREA, SERBIA

In this study the seroprevalence of anti-Borrelia burgdorferi IgG antibodies in populations of naturally exposed dogs in the Belgrade area was determined. Serum samples of 215 dogs were tested with in-house made indirect immunofluorescent-antibody assay (IFA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and Western blot assay (WB). Sera were from 34 pet dogs suspected of having Lyme borreliosis, 41 hunting dogs, 125 shelter dogs, and 15 clinically healthy pet dogs. Results of WB were used as a standard against which the performances of ELISA and IFA were evaluated. ELISA was significantly more sensitive than IFA (84.8 vs 67.9%), whereas the specificities of these tests were just slightly different (94.4% vs 92.6 %). Borrelia burgdorferi seroprevalence of 24.7% among tested dogs was recorded by WB test. The highest seroprevalence of 31.2% was found in the group of shelter dogs, while hunting and pet dogs showed lower seroprevalence of 19.5% and 17.6%, but the difference was statistically insignificant. These results are the first report on the seroprevalence of IgG antibodies to B. burgdorferi in dogs in the Belgrade area and could be of importance in the assessment of the risk of infection with B. burgdorferi in human population

Evidence of recombination in Tula virus strains from Serbia

Tula hantavirus (TULV) belongs to Bunyaviridae family, with negative sense RNA genome. Segmented nature of hantaviral genome allows for genetic reassortment, but the evidence of homologous recombination also exists. In this study we analyzed TULV sequences isolated in Serbia on different occasions and from different rodent hosts: 1987 strain from Microtus subterraneus and 2007 strain from Microtus arvalis. Phylogenetic analysis of both L and S segment sequences is suggestive of geographically related clustering, as previously shown for majority of hantaviruses. Reconstruction of phylogenetic tree for TULV S segment showed that both sequences from Serbia clustered together with sequences from East Slovakia, which had previously been shown to be recombinants (Kosice strain). Exploratory recombination analysis, supported by phylogenetic and amino acid pattern analysis, revealed the presence of recombination in the S segment sequences from Serbia, resulting in mosaic-like structure of TULV S segment similar to the one of Kosice strain. Although recombination is considered a rare event in molecular evolution of negative strand RNA viruses, obtained molecular data in this study support evidence of recombination in TULV, in geographically distant regions of Europe. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved