Discovery of hantavirus circulating among Rattus rattus in French Mayotte island, Indian Ocean.

Claudia Filippone (1) , Guillaume Castel (2) , Séverine Murri (3) , Frédérik Beaulieux (4, 5) , Myriam Ermonval (1) , Corinne Jallet (1) , Emma L Wise (6) , Richard J Ellis (6) , Denise A Marston (6) , Lorraine M Mcelhinney (6, 7) , Anthony R Fooks (6, 7) , Amélie Desvars (8) , Lénai G Halos (9) , Gwenaël Vourc’h (8) , Philippe Marianneau (3) , Noël Tordo (1)

1 Stratégies antivirales
2 UMR CBGP - Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations
3 Laboratoire de Lyon [ANSES]
4 Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse [CHU - HCL]
5 Centre de Recherche Clinique [Lyon]
6 Wildlife Zoonoses and Vector-borne Diseases Research Group
7 University of Liverpool
8 UR EpiA - Unité de Recherche d'Épidémiologie Animale
9 Mérial [Lyon]

Hantaviruses are emerging zoonotic viruses that cause human diseases. In this study, sera from 642 mammals from La Réunion and Mayotte islands (Indian Ocean) were screened for the presence of hantaviruses by molecular analysis. None of the mammals from La Réunion island was positive, but hantavirus genomic RNA was discovered in 29/160 (18 %) Rattus rattus from Mayotte island. The nucleoprotein coding region was sequenced from the liver and spleen of all positive individuals allowing epidemiological and intra-strain variability analyses. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete coding genomic sequences showed that this Murinae-associated hantavirus is a new variant of Thailand virus. Further studies are needed to investigate hantaviruses in rodent hosts and in Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) human cases.

Domains: Virology

Claudia Filippone, Guillaume Castel, Séverine Murri, Frédérik Beaulieux, Myriam Ermonval, et al.. Discovery of hantavirus circulating among Rattus rattus in French Mayotte island, Indian Ocean.. Journal of General Virology, 2016, 97 (5), pp.1060-1065. ⟨10.1099/jgv.0.000440⟩. ⟨pasteur-01350075⟩