Putative Novel Genotype of Avian Hepatitis E Virus, Hungary, 2010

To explore the genetic diversity of avian hepatitis E virus strains, we characterized the near-complete genome of a strain detected in 2010 in Hungary, uncovering moderate genome sequence similarity with reference strains. Public health implications related to consumption of eggs or meat contaminated by avian hepatitis E virus, or to poultry handling, require thorough investigation

Occurence of West Nile virus in mosquito vectors and vertebrate hosts in Hungary

SUMMARY West Nile virus (WNV) is a widely distributed mosquito-borne flavivirus. WNV associated disease and mortality in animal and human hosts have been diagnosed in Hungary since 2003. Over the past years (2009-2015) active and passive monitoring programs have been carried out to survey WNV activity in Hungary. Each year WNV infections have been detected in wild bird carcasses and horses showing neurological signs. During a two year mosquito surveillance programme in 2011–2012, the viral RNA has been isolated from three different mosquito species (Ochlerotatus annulipes, Coquillettidia richiardii és Culex pipiens). Besides the monitoring programs, we have tested potential molecular markers of pathogenicity of the Hungarian lineage 2 WNV strain. The present study clearly demonstrates the presence of WNV in the country and reconfirms the importance of regular and expanded surveillance programs

Emergence and characterisation of pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses in Hungarian swine herds

In 2010, two novel porcine H1N1 influenza viruses were isolated from pigs with influenza-like illness in Hungarian swine herds. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis of these strains revealed that they shared molecular features with the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus strains, which emerged globally during 2009. The PB2, HA and NA genes contained unique amino acid changes compared to the available new H1N1 influenza virus sequences of pig origin. Furthermore, the investigated strains could be separated with respect to parallel amino acid substitutions affecting the polymerase genes (PB2, PB1 and PA) and the nucleoprotein (NP) gene, supporting the proposed complementarities between these proteins, all required for the viral fitness. Molecular characterisation of two Hungarian human pandemic H1N1 isolates was also performed, so that we could compare contemporaneous strains of different host species origins. Shared molecular motifs in various genes of animal and human influenza strains suggested that the Hungarian porcine strains could have originated from humans through direct interspecies transmission. This study is among the few that support the natural human-to-pig transmission of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus

In Vitro and in Vivo evaluation of mutations in the NS region of Lineage 2 West Nile virus associated with Neuroinvasiveness in a Mammalian model

West Nile virus (WNV) strains may differ significantly in neuroinvasiveness in vertebrate hosts. In contrast to genetic lineage 1 WNVs, molecular determinants of pathogenic lineage 2 strains have not been experimentally confirmed so far. A full-length infectious clone of a neurovirulent WNV lineage 2 strain (578/10; Central Europe) was generated and amino acid substitutions that have been shown to attenuate lineage 1 WNVs were introduced into the nonstructural proteins (NS1 (P250L), NS2A (A30P), NS3 (P249H) NS4B (P38G, C102S, E249G)). The mouse neuroinvasive phenotype of each mutant virus was examined following intraperitoneal inoculation of C57BL/6 mice. Only the NS1-P250L mutation was associated with a significant attenuation of virulence in mice compared to the wild-type. Multiplication kinetics in cell culture revealed significantly lower infectious virus titres for the NS1 mutant compared to the wild-type, as well as significantly lower amounts of positive and negative stranded RNA