Viruses in Ixodes Uriae (Acari: Ixodidae) from Seabird Colonies at RoSt Islands, Lofoten, Norway

• Published in: Journal of Medical Entomology
• Main Authors: Saikku, P., Main, A. J., Ulmanen, I., Brummer-Korvenkontio, M.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1980
• Subjects: Articles; Lofoten; Murmansk; Norway; Røst; uria
• Online Access: http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/17/4/360; https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/17.4.360

A total of 1929 Ixodes uriae collected from Røst Islands, Lofoten, Norway, in July 1974, was divided into 204 pools and inoculated into suckling mice and chick embryo cell cultures for virus isolation. Virus was detected in 6.6% of the laboratory-molted female ticks, 5.4% of the males and 1.8% of the nymphs. No isolates were obtained from 149 unengorged adult ticks. Of 50 viral strains recovered, 30 belonged to the Uukuniemi group, 13 to the Kemerovo group, and I was a strain of Tyuleniy of Group B. Of 6 untyped strains, I was orbiviruslike and I resembled a coronavirus in a negative-staining electron microscopy. The infection rates of I. uria in Lofoten were similar to those reported in the Murmansk area in the northern USSR.