General information
The Usutu virus belongs, like the related West Nile virus (WNV), to the flavivirus group. Similar to WNV, this virus also infects birds (mainly passerines, but also raptors and owls) and birds serve as the virus reservoir. In the past years, enzootic blackbird die-offs have taken place in mainland Europe (the last in 2018). The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes. The resulting disease is a zoonosis and can present with fever, rashes and meningitis in humans. However, the course of the disease is generally milder than with WNV.