Skip to main content
Canadian Medical Association Journal logoLink to Canadian Medical Association Journal
. 1963 Jan 26;88(4):182–185.

Powassan and Silverwater Viruses: Ecology of Two Ontario Arboviruses

Donald M McLean, R P Bryce Larke
PMCID: PMC1920964  PMID: 13932161

Abstract

Powassan virus was isolated from a pool of Ixodes marxi ticks collected during late August 1962, from a red squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, and from blood obtained from a red squirrel during early October 1962 near Powassan, Ontario, where a child contracted fatal encephalitis due to this virus in September 1958. The frequent detection of Powassan virus neutralizing antibody in sera of squirrels captured during autumn, but rarely at other seasons, and the frequent I. marxi infestation of squirrels, some of which contain antibody, but the lack of occurrence of I. marxi on other forest rodents, suggest that I. marxi ticks are vectors and squirrels are reservoirs of Powassan virus infection. Isolation of Silverwater virus from Haemaphysalis leporis-palustris ticks which infested a snowshoe hare Lepus americanus near Powassan demonstrates the presence of this agent in the Powassan area also.

Full text

PDF
184

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. CASALS J. Antigenic relationship between Powassan and Russian spring-summer encephalitis viruses. Can Med Assoc J. 1960 Feb 13;82:355–358. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. CHUEVA S. V. K izucheniiu epidemiologii vesenne-letnego kleshchevogo entsefalita v Tatarskoi ASSR. Med Parazitol (Mosk) 1958 May-Jun;27(3):308–313. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. CLARKE D. H., CASALS J. Techniques for hemagglutination and hemagglutination-inhibition with arthropod-borne viruses. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1958 Sep;7(5):561–573. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1958.7.561. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. EKLUND C. M., KENNEDY R. C., CASEY M. Colorado tick fever. Rocky Mt Med J. 1961 Jun;58:21–25. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. McLEAN D. M., DONOHUE W. L. Powassan virus: isolation of virus from a fatal case of encephalitis. Can Med Assoc J. 1959 May 1;80(9):708–711. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. McLean D. M., Macpherson L. W., Walker S. J., Funk G. Powassan Virus: Surveys of Human and Animal Sera. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1960 Oct;50(10):1539–1544. doi: 10.2105/ajph.50.10.1539. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. McLean D. M., McQueen E. J., Petite H. E., Macpherson L. W., Scholten T. H., Ronald K. Powassan Virus: Field Investigations in Northern Ontario, 1959 to 1961. Can Med Assoc J. 1962 May 26;86(21):971–974. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. THEILER M. Action of sodium desoxycholate on arthropod-borne viruses. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1957 Nov;96(2):380–382. doi: 10.3181/00379727-96-23483. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. THOMAS L. A., KENNEDY R. C., EKLUND C. M. Isolation of a virus closely related to Powassan virus from Dermacentor andersoni collected along North Cache la Poudre River, Colo. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1960 Jun;104:355–359. doi: 10.3181/00379727-104-25836. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Canadian Medical Association Journal are provided here courtesy of Canadian Medical Association

RESOURCES