Arbovirus Isolation and Serological Survey 
By Dr, Robert E, Shope 
Yale Arbovirvs Research Unit, 
New Haven, Connecticut 
Introduction 
The initial attempts to isolate arboviruses from old-world migrating 
birds were by Schmidt (unpublished) working at NAMRU-3 near Cairo in the 
fall of 1961 and 1962, The NAMRU-3 team recovered numerous viruses from 
the blood of birds migrating from Eurasia to Africa. These agents when 
compared among themselves were found to represent &t least 6 serotypes 
which were sent to YARU for further identification (see Table 13). The 6 
types included Kemerovo, Uukuniemi, Matruh of the Tete group (representing 
over 50 isolates), 2 new interrelated viruses, Burg el Arab and Matariya 
and a sixth unnamed virus, also apparently new to science. 
Very few other studies involving migrating birds have been reported. 
Nir ^ al (1967) isolated West Nile and Sindbis viruses from turtle doves 
in Israel; Takahashi (in press) found Japanese encephalitis virus 
in a warbler, Phvlloscopus borealis , presumably migrating to Japan prior 
to the usual Japanese encephalitis season; and Bond e^ aJ (in press) re¬ 
ported isolation of eastern equine encephalitis from two Black and White 
Warblers, Mniotilta varia , in Florida. 
The present report includes results of virus isolation attempts from 
3,890 individual and pooled blood samples collected in Egypt and Cyprus 
from 6,152 birds between 1966 and 1969. Pertinent serological identificat¬ 
ion data on the viruses isolated as well as on selected other bird viruses 
referred to YARU for identification are included. In addition, extensive 
hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests with arboviruses were carried out 
with samples from the fall migration of 1966 in Egypt and from the spring 
migration of 1968 in Cyprus, and isolation of virus was attempted from pools 
of ticks taken from migratory birds. 
66 
