Arbovirological survey in Silica plateau area, Roznava District, Czechoslovakia

The serosurveys conducted in the Silica plateau area of the Slovak karst region revealed the presence of specific neutralizing antibody against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus in 18% of local inhabitants (33 examined, mostly goats and sheep farmers), 54% of goats (26 examined), 18% of sheep (120 examined) and 13% of cattle (60 examined), against Lipovnik (LIP) virus in 30% of inhabitants, 88% of goats, 55% of sheep and 45% of cattle, and against Bhanja (BHA) virus in 27% of inhabitants, 46% of goats, 29% of sheep and 23% of cattle. The results of hemagglutination-inhibition tests with TBE and BHA antigens were analogous. A detailed analysis of these serologic data points to a recent enhancement of the circulation of LIP and BHA viruses and to a very low TBE virus activity in this natural focus of arboviral infections. The immunological surveys of the 32 former "Roznava disease" patients, conducted 25 years after an extensive epidemic of a TBE virus infection that originated in Roznava in 1951, revealed the presence of neutralizing (and also hemagglutination-inhibiting) antibodies against TBE virus in as many as 78% of cases. Antibodies against LIP and BHA viruses were also detectable in the sera of 16% and 9%, respectively, of these individuals. Populations of the ectoparasites examined for the presence of arbovirus comprised 231 Ixodes ricinus, 806 Dermacentor marginatus and 204 Haemaphysalis punctata ticks and 117 specimens of the louse-flies Melophagus ovinus. Two strains of arbivirus that were antigenically related to Lipovnik and Tribec viruses belonging to a group of Kemerovo viruses were isolated from male and female I. ricinus ticks collected from cattle.