ABSTRACT
Viruses may exhibit considerable differences in different ecosystems. The Usutu virus (USUV) is a mosquito-borne avivirus, which was described several decades ago in Africa, however, with minor clinical impact. In contrast to that, a strain that emerged recently in central Europe exhibited signicant pathogenicity to vertebrates, especially to certain wild bird species. Since then, the virus has been investigated and characterized in several different aspects, and new methods were developed for the specic, quick, and reliable diagnosis of the virus infections in vertebrate hosts and in invertebrate vectors. Nevertheless, little is known about the genetic diversity, virulence, and zoonotic potential of this virus. This chapter reviews our current knowledge on USUV; however, the detection and characterization of further-probably African-strains in the future may rene our opinion on the human health impact of the virus.
