[Discovery of natural foci of Newcastle disease virus in the USSR]. / Obnaruzhenie prirodnykh ochagov virusa bolezni N'iukasl v SSSR.

In examination of colonial birds in the Volga delta in the Astrakhan region (188 bioassays from 229 birds) and in the Komandorskie Islands of the Kamchatka region (244 bioassays from 208 birds) in 1974, 15 strains of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) were isolated (8 strains from 7 birds and 7 strains from 12 birds, respectively). The strains were isolated from Egretta alba and Ardea cinerea, and Phalacracorax carbo in the Astrakhan region and from Lunda cirrhata and Uria aalge in the Komandorskie Islands. The isolates were obtained from tracheal and cloacal washings and from pools of viscera. These data are the first evidence of the existence of Newcastle disease virus foci in the USSR.

Ecology of tick-borne viruses in colonies of birds in the USSR.

During 1969--1974, 66,000 argasid and ixodid ticks from bird colonies in different parts of the USSR were studied. 247 strains of 8 different viruses were isolated. West Nile, Baku and Caspiy viruses were found from argasid ticks in the Caucasus and Middle Asia whereas ixodid ticks from seabird colonies in the North of the Far East and in the European part of the country yielded Tyuleniy, Zaliv Terpenya, Okhotskiy, Sakhalin and Paramushir viruses. The implications of the findings in the ecology of arboviruses is discussed.