Rodents from the subfamily
Murinae are the principal hosts of the Old World arenaviruses.
The total number of rodent species includes seven species in the squirrel family; the beaver; two sigmodontine rodents (= old Cricetinae), both of which are in the genus Peromyscus; four or five species of arvicoline rodents (= old Microtinae; muskrat, three voles and probably the bog lemming); two Old World rodents (
Murinae), the Norway rat and the house mouse; and the meadow jumping mouse (Zapodinae, Dipodidae).
Specific LCMV antibodies were detected in 4 of 10 rodent species tested; all belonged to the subfamily
Murinae and were trapped throughout the country.
In March 2005, during 1,100 trap nights, 133 rodents belonging to the subfamilies Sigmodontinae (family Cricetidae) and
Murinae (family Muridae) were collected (trap success rate 12.1%).
Designated Cao Bang virus (CBNV), the newly identified hantavirus exhibited low nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarity to representative hantaviruses harbored by
Murinae, Arvicolinae, Neotominae, and Sigmodontinae rodents, ranging from 62.6% (nt) and 61.2% (aa) for Hantaan virus (HTNV) 76-118; 62.3% (nt) and 61.7% (aa) for Dobrava virus (DOBV) Greece to 58.1% (nt) and 52.0% (aa) for Puumala virus Sotkamo; and 58.8% (nt) and 54.7% (aa) for Sin Nombre virus NMH10 (Table 2).
Pairwise alignment and comparison of the 1,390-nt region (463 aa) spanning the Gn and Gc glycoprotein-encoding M segment indicated differences of 33.6%-41.9% and 32.7%-47.4% at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively, from representative hantaviruses harbored by
Murinae, Arvicolinae, Neotominae, and Sigmodontinae rodents (Table 2).
The house mouse (Mus musculus) is a member of the subfamily
Murinae, family Muridae (11) and the principal host of LCMV.
Molecular identification of tour cryptic species of Mastomys (Rodentia,
Murinae).
Reverse transcription and nested amplification were performed with primers previously designed to detect partial S and M segment sequences from hantaviruses associated with rodents of the
Murinae and Arvicolinae subfamilies (14,15).
longicaudatus Oligoryzomys sp Oxymycterus paramensis
Murinae Mus musculas Rattus rattus Didelphi- Didelphidae Marmosinae Thylamys venustus morphia T.
The mammals belonged to 11 species, 75.1% of the captured animals corresponded to the Sigmodontinae subfamily, 23.7 % to the
Murinae subfamily, 0.6% to the Caviidae family, and 0.6% to the Didelphidae family (Table 1).