Seroprevalence and molecular characterization of West Nile Virus in Egypt

West Nile Virus (WNV) is a flavivirus, mosquito-borne infection and have public health importance worldwide. WNV infection have highly significant impact on animal and human health. The virus has been detected serologically in Egypt among equids. Therefore, the aim of the present study to investigate the serological situation of WNV among horse in north of Egypt and identification of WNV in vector. The serological survey was conducted on 500 serum samples that collected from horses from four governorates at north of Egypt. The infection rate was non-significant differed between four localities and the highest rate was reported in Qalyubia governorate (25.5 %) in comparison with other areas. Moreover, the WNV RNA was detected in mosquitoes and the obtained WNV sequence showed high similarity with Eg101 strain and characterized as lineage 1. The obtained findings confirm the circulation of WNV in mosquitoes and animals in Egypt.