Please cite this article in press as: Dedkov, V.G., et al., Prevalence of Kemerovo virus in ixodid ticks from the Russian Federation. Ticks Tick-borne Dis. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2014.04.017 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model TTBDIS-341; No. of Pages 5 Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases j ourna l h o me page: w ww.elsevier.com/locate/ttbdis Original article Prevalence of Kemerovo virus in ixodid ticks from the Russian Federation V.G. Dedkov a,b,∗ , M.L. Markelov b , K.A. Gridneva a , M.V. Bekova a , A.P. Gmyl c , L.I. Kozlovskaya c , G.G. Karganova c , L.Iu. Romanova c , V.V. Pogodina c , V.V. Yakimenko d , G.A. Shipulin a a Central Research Institute for Epidemiology, Russian Inspectorate for Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare, Moscow, Russia b RAMS Institute of Occupational Health, Moscow, Russia c Chumakov Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, Moscow, Russia d Omsk Research Institute of Natural Foci Infections, Omsk, Russia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 3 January 2014 Received in revised form 14 April 2014 Accepted 24 April 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Kemerovo virus Kemerovo fever Orbivirus genus Real-time PCR Ixodid ticks Russian Federation a b s t r a c t The prevalence of Kemerovo virus in ixodid ticks collected in 2008–2012 from 11 regions of the Russian Federation was investigated by real-time reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR). The presence of Kemerovo virus in Ixodes persulcatus, Ixodes ricinus, and Dermacentor reticulatus was confirmed. Virus prevalence depended on the region and varied from zero to 10.1%. © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Introduction The biodiversity of tick-transmitted infections in the temperate latitudes of Eurasia remains unclear. A lot of investigations have addressed tick-borne bacterial infections, including those caused by Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia muris, and members of the spotted fever group of Rickettsiales. The number of investigations which have addressed viral tick-transmitted agents are significantly smaller, and these studies focused mainly on tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). However, approximately 30 tick-transmitted viruses have been detected in Eurasia (Hubálek and Rudolf, 2012). In addition to TBEV, several other viruses, such as Crimean-Congo hemor- rhagic fever virus (CCHFV), Bhanja virus (BHAV), Eyach virus (EYAV), and Tribec virus (TRBV) are known to cause human dis- ease. ∗ Corresponding author at: 111123, Central Research Institute for Epidemiology, Russian Inspectorate for Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare, 3a Novogireevskaya, Moscow, Russia. Tel.: +7 495 672 1158; fax: +7 495 304 2209. E-mail address: vgdedkov@yandex.ru (V.G. Dedkov). A united expedition of Soviet and Czechoslovakian scientists in the Kemerovo region, headed by the Academician M.P. Chumakov, took place in 1962. Forty-eight Soviet and 6 Czechoslovakian sci- entists participated in this expedition. The basic mission of the expedition was a virological screening of Ixodes persulcatus, a vector of TBEV in Western Siberia, and collection of blood samples from tick-bitten individuals. The samples were studied in vivo in newborn mice and chicken embryos and in vitro using porcine embryonic cells. As a result of the expedition, new information regarding TBEV was obtained. Also a novel virus was isolated. This virus was subsequently named Kemerovo virus (KEMV) following the suggestion of Chumakov et al. (1963). The first strains of KEMV were isolated from homogenized sus- pensions of questing I. persulcatus females by Czechoslovakian sci- entists, headed by Libikova et al. (1970); 1035 adult ticks were col- lected near the Romanovka and Kuchum villages in the Kemerovo region and were pooled into 93 samples. Eight strains of KEMV were isolated and studied. Additionally, 2 strains of KEMV from patients with encephalitis were successfully isolated (Shapoval et al., 1964). More than 20 similar strains were isolated from I. persulcatus by other scientific groups from patients with encephalitis and from healthy tick-bitten individuals (Semashko, 1971). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2014.04.017 1877-959X/© 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.