Egyed et al.
Hungarian tick-borne encephalitis viruses, isolated from a 0.5-ha focus area, are closely related to Finnish strains.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2018, in press
For an eight-year period, from 2010 to 2017, ticks were collected in a small (only 0.5 ha) TBE focus area in Hungary. From nearly 11,000 ticks collected, four TBE virus strains could be isolated. Of these, two strains, which were isolated in 2012, showed identical genomes from either Ixodes ricinus or Haemaphysalis concinna (first published complete sequence of Hungarian isolates). TBE virus isolates collected later showed genetic variations, for which a mutation rate of 1.5 mutations per year has been calculated. This is significantly higher compared to the mutation rate of Finnish stains published elsewhere. Phylogenetic analyses of the isolated Hungarian strains indicated a close relationship to strains isolated in Finland, Russia and Germany, indicating the impact of migratory birds for the spread of the TBE virus.