Co-circulation of three pathogenic hantaviruses: Puumala, Dobrava, and Saaremaa in Hungary.

Hantaviruses (Bunyaviridae) cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Eurasia and hantavirus (cardio)pulmonary syndrome (HCPS) in the Americas. HFRS is caused by Hantaan virus (HTNV), Seoul virus (SEOV), Dobrava virus (DOBV), Saaremaa virus (SAAV), and Puumala virus (PUUV). Of those, only HTNV is not present in Europe. In recent years, hantaviruses, described in other parts of Europe, were also detected at various locations in Hungary. To study the genetic properties of Hungarian hantaviruses in detail, sequences of the viral S and M segments were recovered from bank voles (Myodes glareolus), yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis), and striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius) trapped in the Transdanubian region. As expected, the sequences recovered belonged, respectively, to PUUV (two strains), DOBV (one strain), and SAAV (one strain). On phylogenetic trees two new Hungarian PUUV strains located within the well- supported Alpe-Adrian (ALAD) genetic lineage that included also Austrian, Slovenian, and Croatian strains. Analysis of the Hungarian SAAV and DOBV genetic variants showed host-specific clustering and also geographical clustering within each of these hantavirus species. Hungarian SAAV and DOBV strains were related most closely to strains from Slovenia (Prekmurje region). This study confirms that multiple hantaviruses can co-circulate in the same locality and can be maintained side-by-side in different rodent species.

Plyusnina A ，Ferenczi E ，Rácz GR ，Nemirov K ，Lundkvist A ，Vaheri A ，Vapalahti O ，Plyusnin A ... -  《-》

Detection of Dobrava hantavirus RNA in Apodemus mice in Bulgaria.

Several Hantaviruses cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe: Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV), Puumala, Saaremaa, Sochi, and Seoul virus. Although HFRS is endemic in Bulgaria, genome sequences of hantaviruses have never been detected in wild rodents. To identify rodent reservoirs, a total of 691 rodents from three endemic regions were trapped in 2011-2012 and screened by TaqMan RT-PCR for detection of hantaviral genomic RNA. Partial small (S) and/or large (L)-segment sequences were recovered from six Apodemus mice: five of the species A. flavicollis and one A. agrarius. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all recovered sequences belonged to DOBV. On the phylogenetic trees, the novel Bulgarian hantavirus sequences clustered together with sequences of established previously DOBV variants recovered from Bulgarian HFRS patients and also with variants found in wild rodents trapped in Slovenia, Greece, and Slovakia. One of the novel Bulgarian DOBV S-sequences from A. agrarius was related closely to DOBV sequences recovered from A. flavicollis, suggesting a spillover of DOBV from its natural host to A. agrarius mice. The results of this study confirmed the circulation of DOBV in wild rodents in Bulgaria. The complexity of the epidemiological situation in the Balkans requires further studies of hantaviruses in rodent hosts and human HFRS cases.

Christova I ，Plyusnina A ，Gladnishka T ，Kalvatchev N ，Trifonova I ，Dimitrov H ，Mitkovska V ，Mohareb E ，Plyusnin A ... -  《-》

Genetic evidence for the presence of two distinct hantaviruses associated with Apodemus mice in Croatia and analysis of local strains.

In Europe, Dobrava-Belgrade (DOBV), Saaremaa (SAAV), and Puumala (PUUV) viruses are known to cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). All three hantaviruses are now found in Croatia. Lung tissue samples of 315 Apodemus mice trapped in 2003-2004 were screened for the presence of hantaviral N-Ag and 20 mice (6.3%) were found either strongly positive or weak/suspected-positive. Partial sequences of hantavirus M and S segments were recovered by RT-PCR from six mice and subjected to (phylo)genetic analysis that revealed the presence of four novel strains of DOBV and one of SAAV. Curiously, one of the newly described DOBV strains was found in Apodemus agrarius mouse, that is, not in the traditional host, A. flavicollis mice, suggesting a spillover event. S segment sequences recovered previously from HFRS cases [Markotić et al., 2002] were confirmed as DOBV sequences; one of which appeared particularly close to the prototype Slovenian DOBV isolate. Taken together with earlier data on PUUV in Croatia, these results show a co-circulation of three European hantavirus pathogens in this country. So far, not a single SAAV sequence has been recovered from HFRS patients either in Croatia or neighboring Slovenia and Hungary nor in Slovakia suggesting a somewhat lower fequency of acute SAAV infection in humans in this part of Europe than for example in the Baltics.

Plyusnina A ，Krajinović LC ，Margaletić J ，Niemimaa J ，Nemirov K ，Lundkvist Å ，Markotić A ，Miletić-Medved M ，Avšič-Županc T ，Henttonen H ，Plyusnin A ... -  《-》

Genetic diversity and geographic distribution of hantaviruses in Russia.

Garanina SB ，Platonov AE ，Zhuravlev VI ，Murashkina AN ，Yakimenko VV ，Korneev AG ，Shipulin GA ... -  《-》

Detection of Dobrava hantaviruses in Apodemus agrarius mice in the Transdanubian region of Hungary.

Jakab F ，Horváth G ，Ferenczi E ，Sebok J ，Varecza Z ，Szucs G ... -  《VIRUS RESEARCH》