Recombinant Sabin environmental isolates in Greece and Cyprus

Aims: Twenty‐one polioviruses (PVs) Sabin strains were isolated from sewage treatment plants from Metamorphosis, Athens, Greece during the time period from May to October 1996, and from two other sites located at Nicosia and Limassol in Cyprus between April and December 2003 were retrospectively investigated for the detection of recombinant PVs. Methods and Results: Three PVs isolates were found as tripartite recombinants, S3/S2/S1 in the 2C genomic viral region. The first recombination site S3/S2 was located close to the 5′ end of 2C while the second recombination site S2/S1 was located towards the 3′ end of 2C .Such recombination is a rare event producing a tripartite hybrid 2C protein. Three more PVs isolates were characterized as bipartite S2/S1 recombinants and one as S2/S3 bipartite recombinant. Conclusions: Detection of recombinant circulating vaccine‐derived PVs (cVDPVs) is crucial, since increased transmissibility over that of the parental Sabin strains has been proposed to be the result of recombination events. Significance and Impact of the Study: Importation of recombinant cVDPVs evolved derivatives pose a serious threat to public health and environmental surveillance should be implemented during and after PVs eradication.