Detection of West Nile virus isolates in poultry in central Vietnam in 2015-2019

Cases of detection of RNA or ELISA markers of West Nile virus (WNV) have been recorded in many countries of Southeast Asia. At the same time, there were no reports of outbreaks of fevers caused by WNV. Perhaps this is due to the asymptomatic or very mild course of the disease or to the focus of the health systems of these countries on other viral fevers. In this work, for the first time in Vietnam, West Nile virus (WNV) RNA was detected in poultry. WNV RNA was found in three lung samples of chickens from Nghe An province collected in 2017. The isolates belonged to lineages 1a and 2, responsible for many WNV outbreaks in Europe and North America and therefore require close attention.