Dataset accompanying the article: West Nile virus surveillance using sentinel birds: results of eleven years of West Nile virus testing in corvids in a region of Northern Italy

In this dataset are resumed the results of West Nile virus surveillance in sentinel corvids in the Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy. Overall, 15,632 European magpies (Pica pica), 4670 Hooded crows (Corvus cornix), and 2012 Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) were collected between May and October 2013-2023. In the nine provinces of the region, birds were shot or captured using Larsen traps and killed by trained hunters by cervical dislocation in accordance with the provisions of the national legislation on animal welfare (Council Regulation (EC) 1099/2009). Sampling was carried out on a voluntary basis under the supervision of the official veterinary services, which ensured rapid delivery of the birds to the laboratory in charge of testing.

From each sampled bird, heart, brain, kidney, and spleen were pooled, mechanically homogenized and tested by real-time PCRs to detect WNV RNA (Del Amo et al., 2013; Eiden et al., 2010; Tang et al., 2006). All tests were performed in the same laboratory (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna; IZSLER, Reggio Emilia site).

The following data are available for statistical analysis: bird species, sampling date, sampling province, date of delivery to the laboratory, testing start date, test result, date of notification of positive result.

In the same dataset are reported some data about incidence of human cases of disease due to West Nile virus infection (neurological disease or fever), per year, week, and province.

The record trace is described in Table 1.

References

1.      Del Amo, J., Sotelo, E., Fernández-Pinero, J., Gallardo, C., Llorente, F., Agüero, M., Jiménez-Clavero, M.A., 2013. A novel quantitative multiplex real-time RT-PCR for the simultaneous detection and differentiation of West Nile virus lineages 1 and 2, and of Usutu virus. J Virol Methods 189, 321–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2013.02.019

2.      Eiden, M., Vina-Rodriguez, A., Hoffmann, B., Ziegler, U., Groschup, M.H., 2010. Two new real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assays with unique target sites for the specific and sensitive detection of lineages 1 and 2 West Nile virus strains. J Vet Diagn Invest 22, 748–753. https://doi.org/10.1177/104063871002200515 

3.      Tang, Y., Anne Hapip, C., Liu, B., Fang, C.T., 2006. Highly sensitive TaqMan RT-PCR assay for detection and quantification of both lineages of West Nile virus RNA. J Clin Virol 36, 177–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2006.02.008

Table 1. Dataset record trace