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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1462645

Analysis of the zoonotic tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in raw milk and dairy products in mountain pastures of the Lombardy region, Italy

Provisionally accepted
Annalisa Scarazzato Annalisa Scarazzato 1*Francesco Righi Francesco Righi 1Marco P. Sommariva Marco P. Sommariva 2Irene Bertoletti Irene Bertoletti 3Giovanni Sala Giovanni Sala 4Franco Paterlini Franco Paterlini 5Paolo Daminelli Paolo Daminelli 6Guido Finazzi Guido Finazzi 1,7Marina-Nadia Losio Marina-Nadia Losio 1Enrico Pavoni Enrico Pavoni 1*
  • 1 Department of Food Safety, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Brescia, Italy
  • 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Bergamo, Italy
  • 3 Istituto Zooprofilattico sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Sondrio, Italy
  • 4 Istituto Zooprofilattico sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Binago, Italy
  • 5 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Brescia, Italy
  • 6 National Reference Centre Bovine Milk Quality,, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Brescia, Italy
  • 7 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, National Reference Centre for Emerging Risks in Food Safety, Brescia, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Over the last few decades, tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has become a growing public health problem in Europe. The tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a zoonotic virus that affects the Central Nervous System (CNS). TBEV has been detected in 27 European countries, and the rise in TBE cases is mainly due to environmental, ecological, and factors that increase the risk of human exposure to infected ticks. The infection via the alimentary route is the second most common means of TBEV transmission to humans. Raw milk from infected goats, sheep, or cows has been identified as a source of human food-borne infections. This study aims to gather new information on the prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in raw goat's and cow's milk and related raw products in the Lombard Alps (Italy). This is important due to the close proximity of Lombardy to the Triveneto region, where TBE is endemic, and southern Switzerland, where numerous TBEVpositive mammals have been found. Throughout 2023, a passive monitoring plan was implemented on samples delivered for TBEV analyses from the Alpine pastures. Totally, 248 specimens including raw milk, raw milk cheese, and butter were tested. This is the first monitoring on food at risk of TBEV transmission in a non-endemic region with evidence of TBEV circulation. Despite testing a wide range of dairy products, no samples resulted positive for RNA-TBEV by real time RT-PCR. Preliminary results suggest that raw milk and raw dairy products do not pose a significant risk of TBEV transmission to humans in the territory of Lombardy.

    Keywords: Tick-borne encephalitis, TBEV, raw milk, Dairy, Goat, Cattle, foodborne, real time RT-PCR

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 24 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Scarazzato, Righi, Sommariva, Bertoletti, Sala, Paterlini, Daminelli, Finazzi, Losio and Pavoni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Annalisa Scarazzato, Department of Food Safety, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Brescia, Italy
    Enrico Pavoni, Department of Food Safety, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Brescia, Italy

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