Rodent-Borne Orthohantaviruses in Vietnam, Madagascar and Japan

• Published in: Viruses
• Main Authors: Fuka Kikuchi, Kae Senoo, Satoru Arai, Kimiyuki Tsuchiya, Nguyễn Sơn, Masaharu Motokawa, Marie Ranorosoa, Saw Bawm, Kyaw Lin, Hitoshi Suzuki, Akira Unno, Keisuke Nakata, Masashi Harada, Keiko Tanaka-Taya, Shigeru Morikawa, Motoi Suzuki, Tetsuya Mizutani, Richard Yanagihara
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2021
• Subjects: Hantaan orthohantavirus; Thailand orthohantavirus; Puumala orthohantavirus; spill-over infection; rodents; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/v13071343

Hantaviruses are harbored by multiple small mammal species in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. To ascertain the geographic distribution and virus-host relationships of rodent-borne hantaviruses in Japan, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Madagascar, RNAlater™-preserved lung tissues of 981 rodents representing 40 species, collected in 2011–2017, were analyzed for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Our data showed Hantaan orthohantavirus Da Bie Shan strain in the Chinese white-bellied rat (Niviventer confucianus) in Vietnam, Thailand; orthohantavirus Anjo strain in the black rat (Rattus rattus) in Madagascar; and Puumala orthohantavirus Hokkaido strain in the grey-sided vole (Myodes rufocanus) in Japan. The Hokkaido strain of Puumala virus was also detected in the large Japanese field mouse (Apodemus speciosus) and small Japanese field mouse (Apodemus argenteus), with evidence of host-switching as determined by co-phylogeny mapping.