During 2017-2018, Barmah Forest virus was recovered from mosquitoes trapped in military training areas in Australia and from a soldier infected at 1 of these areas. Phylogenies of the nucleotide sequences of the envelope glycoprotein gene E2 and the 3' untranslated region suggest that 2 lineages are circulating in eastern Australia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe are a newly assigned family of viruses in the order . Unlike other nidoviruses, which include the , mesoniviruses are restricted to mosquito hosts and do not infect vertebrate cells. To date there is little information on the morphological and antigenic characteristics of this new group of viruses and a dearth of mesonivirus-specific research tools.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe complete genome sequences of two Barmah Forest virus (BFV) strains isolated from mosquitoes trapped in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) training areas during 2017 and 2018 reveal multiple nucleotide insertions in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of ADF BFV strains compared with the BFV prototype strain whole-genome sequence in GenBank.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo outbreaks of epidemic polyarthritis occurred among Australian Defence Force personnel during and following short military exercises in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, northeastern Australia, in 2016 and 2017. Ross River virus (RRV) IgM was detected in acute-phase serum samples from most patients (28/28 in 2016 and 25/31 in 2017), and RRV was recovered from 4/38 serum samples assayed (1/21 in 2016 and 3/17 in 2017). Phylogenetic analyses of RRV envelope glycoprotein E2 and nonstructural protein nsP3 nucleotide sequences segregated the RRV isolates obtained in 2016 and 2017 outbreaks into 2 distinct sublineages, suggesting that each outbreak was caused by a different strain of RRV.
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