Table 1.

The table below reports a proposal for the use of the laboratory tools described in this review.

Clinical Issue (biological sample)	Suggested laboratory tools
Diagnosis of patients with suspected WNV infection: neuroinvasive disease and WNV fever (serum and/or plasma, whole blood, CSF, urine).	It is advisable to prioritize the order of the tests as follows: MAC-EIA, Indirect IgG EIA, IF, virus isolation, RT-PCR, Real time RT-PCR, PRNT90
Evaluation of seroprevalence (serum and/or plasma)	PRNT50; Indirect IgG EIA, IF; Epitope blocking EIA
Screening of blood and organ donations (serum or plasma)	NATs [MAC-EIA and IF (IgG and IgM) are suggested to perform the serologic follow up of the NATs positive donors and as early additional testing in case of not confirmed NAT positivity]
Post-mortem evaluation (tissue biopsy)	Immunohistochemistry