Tick-borne viruses in Icelandic seabird colonies

Nine virus isolations were made from 16 pools of Ixodes uriae ticks collected during three summers from seabird colonies around the coasts of Iceland. The viruses were isolated from four of nine different collection sites. Five viruses were isolated from ticks collected at Ellioaey in BreiOafjorour, West Iceland, two from Grimsey, off North Iceland, and one each from Flath6lmi and I>orm6oseyjarklettur, both in BreiOafjorour. Complement fixation, immunofluorescent antibody and neutralization tests showed that the viruses belonged to three different serogroups: three were orbiviruses of the Kemerovo serogroup, two were nairoviruses of the Hughes serogroup and four were uukuviruses of the Uukuniemi serogroup. A short discussion is given of the transportation of viruses between seabird colonies in Iceland and other parts of the world.