Garcia-Bocanegra et al.
Exposure to West Nile virus and tick-borne encephalitis virus in dogs in Spain.
Transbound. Emerg. Dis. 2018, in press
Vanhomwegen et al.
Circulation of zoonotic arboviruses in equine populations of Mallorca Island (Spain)
Vector Borne Zoonot. Dis. 2017; 17: 340-346
TBE in Spain?
A seroepidemiological study was performed in 815 dogs for flavivirus antibodies in Andalusia. Besides West Nile virus and Usutu virus, neutralizing TBE antibodies have been detected in different regions of Southern Spain during two different time periods.
291 sera from 172 horses were taken and analyzed for West Nile virus, Usutu virus and TBE antibodies. The seroprevalence was 0.6% (1 horse, not travelled outside of Mallorca) for TBE. It cannot be excluded that this result is due to cross-reactivity directed to closely related flaviviruses.
Because of cross-reactions among flaviviruses only the detection of TBE virus in ticks can finally confirm TBE virus circulation in Spain.