Emergence of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in the Netherlands.

Recently, tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) was detected in the Netherlands for the first time, in ticks collected in 2015 in the National Park Sallandse heuvelrug in response to the detection of anti-TBEV antibodies in roe deer. Hereafter, two human cases of autochthonous TBE have been reported, occurring in 2016. One case was geographically linked to the area of the previously reported ticks, which harbored a genetically divergent TBEV-Eu strain variant (TBEV-NL).