Echovirus 30 in Bulgaria during the European Upsurge of the Virus, 2017–2018

Abstract

In 2018, an increase in echovirus 30 (E30) detections was reported in some European countries. To assess the circulation and phylogenetic relationships of E30 in Bulgaria, E30 samples identified at the National Reference Laboratory for Enteroviruses, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Bulgaria (NRL for Enteroviruses) in 2017 and 2018 were subjected to sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. The present study revealed that sample positivity did not significantly increase in Bulgaria during the European upsurge. E30 was identified in six patients, two of whom were epidemiologically linked. The maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree showed that sequences from five patients belonged to the G1 lineage (clades G1a and G1b). The sequence from one patient belonged to the G2 lineage and was grouped closer to sequences from the last E30 outbreak in Bulgaria in 2012. No recombination events were detected. The European E30 upsurge in 2018 was caused by two clades, and one of them was G1. The fact that the majority of the Bulgarian samples belonged to G1 indicated that the virus was present in the country but did not cause a local upsurge. Phylogenetic and epidemiological data indicated sporadic E30 cases and a possible shift towards G1 lineage in 2017 and 2018.