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Since its initial detection in Africa, the West Nile virus has disseminated widely across all continents, becoming endemic in numerous countries, including the Russian Federation. A substantial expansion of the West Nile virus range was observed in the European part of the Russian territory in 1999. In light of this epidemiological trend, research endeavours focusing on monitoring West Nile virus circulation activity in endemic regions of the country have gained paramount significance. A substantial dataset has been accrued from 2007 onwards regarding genomic variability and dissemination dynamics across the country throughout the entire monitoring period for the West Nile fever pathogen. The objective of this study was to characterise West Nile virus isolates that have been circulating in the Russian Federation and identify their molecular and genetic characteristics. A phylogenetic analysis of 55 complete genome sequences revealed that the West Nile virus population within the Russian Federation is genetically heterogeneous and is represented by four major clades. One of these clades is currently exhibiting extensive spread into new regions of the country., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

West Nile fever (WNF) is a natural focal vector-borne disease; the main vectors are mosquitoes. Specific means for its prevention are not available; therefore, one of the main areas of WNF epidemiological surveillance is entomological monitoring that encompasses the control of the size ofvector populations arid the determination of infection rate of mos- quitoes with the virus in order to predict the epidemic situation. An analysis of normative documents on the collection and control of mosquito populations showed it necessary to improve entomological monitoring. Based on the literary and their own data, the authors propose to catch only Culix mosquitoes in the foci of WNF and to analyze their infection rates. The mosquitoes should be caught in mid-June to mid-September in the stationary points of urban and rural biotopes once every 7-10 days, by using automatic traps with CO₂ as an attractant. At least 500 specimens should be examined for virus RNA by PCR every 7-10 days to predict the epidemic situation.