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Updated: May 20, 2026

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
Japanese encephalitis virus RNA detected in Culex pipiens mosquitoes in Italy
P Ravanini1, E Huhtamo, V Ilaria
1Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy. paolo.ravanini@gmail.com
Abstract:
Mosquitoes collected in northern Italy were screened for flavivirus RNA. Positive amplicons were sequenced and found most similar to insect flavivirus (ISF), Usutu virus (USUV) and surprisingly also to Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). The sequence (167 bp), obtained from one pool of Culex pipiens, was found identical to JEV strains from bats in China. Unfortunately additional sequence data or virus isolations were not obtained in this study. Confirmation of potential introduction of JEV to Italy and other European countries is urgently needed.
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