rologie i - European Congress of Virology

5 th European Congress of VirologyA map based on GIS and landcover data of the areas with seropositivitywas constructed. Results: a seroprevalence of 3.77% was observed.Age, gender, periphery, altitude, landcover, history of tick bite, agriculturalactivities and animal contact were shown to be risk factors for CCHFVseropositivity. Conclusions: several environmental, social and geomorphologicpredisposing factors are associated with CCHFV seropositivity.Given that no CCHF cases are reported in Greece, surveillance is neededduring the season when ticks are active in order to gain a better insightinto CCHF epidemiology in Greece.REF 249Human cell tropism and innate immune system interactions of humanrespiratory coronavirus EMC compared to SARS coronavirusFlorian ZIELECKI 1 , Michaela WEBER 1 , Larissa SPIEGELBERG 1 ,Markus EICKMANN 1,2 , Ali Moh ZAKI 3 , Mikhail MATROSOVICH 1,2 ,Stephan BECKER 1,2 , Friedemann WEBER 1,21 Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, GERMANY; 2 German CentreforInfectionResearch, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, GERMANY;3 Virology Laboratory, Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, Jeddah, SAUDI ARA-BIAHCoV EMC is a novel human coronavirus associated with severe pneumoniaand kidney failure. Its similarity to SARS CoV raised fears of anepidemic. We demonstrate that HCoV EMC has the ability to replicatein primary cells of the tracheo bronchial epithelium and in continuouscell lines of the target organs lung and kidney. Moreover, HCoV EMCresembled SARS CoV in preventing the upregulation of the antiviralIFN a/ response and the nuclear import of the IFN transcription factorIRF 3. However, HCoV EMC was markedly more sensitive thanSARS CoV to the antiviral state established by ectopic IFN. Thus, HCoVEMC is able to utilize a broad range of human cell substrates, suppressesthe onset of antiviral IFN responses, but does not reach theIFN resistance of SARS CoV. Our ongoing experiments are aimed atthe identification of the antiviral IFN stimulated gene products whichare responsible for the elevated IFN sensitivity of the novel humancoronavirus.REF 250The German G8 Gobal Partnership Program Contribution for theAdvancement of Biorisk ManagementChristine UHLENHAUT 1,3 , Joachimi VON BONIN 21 Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, GERMANY; 2 BioS Programm OfficeG8GPP, Berlin, GERMANY; 3 Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit(GIZ) GmbH, Berlin, GERMANYBiosecurity and public health security are often not adequately consideredin the conception and execution of life science research projects.Recent examples and subsequent discussion however shows that theseissues need to be addressed on multiple levels in order to ensure goodscientific practices while at the same time avoiding risks of misuse, e.g.bioterrorism or proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In a multinationalsetting, a new program that addresses biorisk management in abroader context, was established under the auspices of the German FederalOffice within the ‘Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons andMaterials of Mass Destruction’ of the G8 countries. This program combinesdifferent projects in the fields of awareness raising, capacity building,detection and diagnostics, surveillance, biosafety and biosecurity. It alsofurthers the networking among different communities such as the publichealth and the security sector. The Program will achieve its aims throughpari passu partnerships with countries and institutions offering educationand trainings for laboratory staff, decision makers and practitioners ofrelevant institutions as well as by providing equipment to a reasonableextent where needed. Key aspect is the dialogue regarding biorisk managementand non proliferation issues. At the same time the offered supportwill not only strengthen biosecurity but also public health managementand will therefore be of tangible and sustainable benefit for the partnercountries.REF 251Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Infection prevalence in FieldCollected Ticks in Endemic Areas of TurkeyMunir AKTAS 1 , Zati VATANSEVER 2 , Nurettin CANAKOGLU 3 , EnginBERBER 3 , Sezayi OZUBEK 1 , Ahmet KALKAN 4 , AykutOZDARENDELI 51 Fırat University Veterinary Faculty, Department of Parasitology, Elazıg,TURKEY; 2 Kafkas University, Kars, TURKEY; 3 Fırat University VeterinaryFaculty, Department of Virology, Elazig, TURKEY; 4 KaradenizTechnical University, Medical Faculty, Department of Infectious Diseases,Trabzon, TURKEY; 5 Erciyess University, Medical Faculty, Department ofMicrobiology, Kayseri, TURKEYTicks are important pests of domestic animals and vectors of the healththreatening agents for humans. Turkey has been experiencing a still increasingoutbreak of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), mainly inCentral Anatolia. Host-seeking adult ticks were collected at several villagesduring June-July 2011 and 2012 in CCHF highly endemic area ofTurkey, and specimens were tested for the presence of the disease. Collectionwas made by using human volunteers, where one collector spending15 minutes sitting or standing by the bushy border of the field in order toattract hiding ticks. Also, the ticks were collected by dragging a Whiteflannel cloth (approx 80 × 160 cm) over the suspected area. Sampling wasdone between 10 and 12 in the morning and 14 and 16 hours in the evening.Ticks were collected into vials, kept alive in a cool place at approx.85% relative humidity and later were transferred to the laboratory. Tickswere identified at species level, and divided into 43 pools comprising 2–10tick specimens according to the source species and localities. The pooledticks were stored in tubes and frozen at −80 ◦C for later RNA extraction.The frozen tick pools were crushed using sterile metal rods in liquidnitrogen in 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes and tested by antigen capture ELISAdeveloped by Firat University, Turkey. Infection rates in tick pools werecalculated using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) methods with95% confidence intervals (CI) for unequal pool sizes and expressed asMLE of infection rate per 100 ticks. A total of 214 ticks were collected. Ofthe collected ticks, 114 (53.27%) were Hyalomma marginatum, followed89 (41.58%) Rhipicephalus turanicus, 8 (3.73%) Haemaphysalis inermis,2 (0.93%) Hyalomma aegyptium and 1 (0.46%) Rhipicephalus bursa. Ofthe 43 tick pools tested, 6 pools (13.95%) from Hyalomma marginatumwere infected with the virus and MLE of the infection rate was calculatedas 7.45% (CI 3.10-15.01) per 100 ticks. This study was supported byTUB.ITAK (KAMAG 108G126)Virologie, Vol 17, supplément 2, septembre 2013S189