Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has been a notifiable disease in Germany since 2001. Its causative agent, the TBE virus (TBEV), is the most important arbovirus in Europe and Northern Asia. The illness, caused by the European Subtype usually displays flu-like symptoms, but can result in sequelae and, in 2 % of all cases, in death. Over the last few decades, the virus has spread into new habitats, such as higher altitudes in the Alpine region. For this study, it was hypothesized that the environmental challenges that the virus might be exposed to at such altitudes could lead to the selection of viral strains with a higher resilience to such environmental factors. To determine whether strains identified at higher altitudes possessed different genetic traits compared to viruses from lower altitudes, an analysis of viral genomes from higher Alpine altitudes (> 500 m above sea level) (n = 5) and lower altitudes (< 500 m above sea level) (n = 4) was performed. No common phylogenetic ancestry or shared amino acid substitutions could be identified that differentiated the alpine from the lowland viral strains. These findings support the idea of many individual introductions of TBEV into the alpine region and the establishment of foci due to non-viral specific factors such as favorable conditions for vector species and host animals due to climate change.

自 2001 年以来，蜱传脑炎 (TBE) 一直是德国的法定报告疾病。其病原体 TBE 病毒 (TBEV) 是欧洲和北亚最重要的虫媒病毒。这种由欧洲亚型引起的疾病通常表现出类似流感的症状，但会导致后遗症，在所有病例中，有 2% 的病例会导致死亡。在过去的几十年中，该病毒已传播到新的栖息地，例如高山地区的高海拔地区。对于这项研究，假设病毒在这样的海拔高度可能面临的环境挑战可能会导致选择对此类环境因素具有更高弹性的病毒株。为了确定与来自低海拔地区的病毒相比，在高海拔地区发现的毒株是否具有不同的遗传特征，对来自高山海拔（> 500 m 以上）（n = 5）和较低海拔（< 500 m 以上）（n = 4）的病毒基因组进行了分析。无法鉴定出将高山病毒株与低地病毒株区分开来的共同系统发育祖先或共享的氨基酸替代。这些发现支持将 TBEV 单独引入高山地区的想法，以及由于非病毒特定因素（例如气候变化导致的病媒物种和宿主动物的有利条件）而建立病灶的想法。