Yellow Pygmy Rice Rat (Oligoryzomys flavescens) and Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in Uruguay

During 5,230 trapping nights, 672 small mammals were trapped in the areas where most hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases occur in Uruguay. Yellow pygmy rice rats (Oligoryzomys flavescens) were the only rodents that showed evidence of antibodies to hantavirus, with a seroprevalence of 2.6%. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Adriana Delfraro, Mario Clara, Lorena Tomé, Federico Achaval, Silvana Levis, Gladys Calderón, Delia Enria, Mario Lozano, José Russi, Juan Arbiza
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2003-07-01
Series:Emerging Infectious Diseases
Subjects:
Online Access:https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/7/03-0044_article
Description
Summary:During 5,230 trapping nights, 672 small mammals were trapped in the areas where most hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases occur in Uruguay. Yellow pygmy rice rats (Oligoryzomys flavescens) were the only rodents that showed evidence of antibodies to hantavirus, with a seroprevalence of 2.6%. The rodents were trapped in all the explored environments, and most of the seropositive rodents were found in habitats frequented by humans. Nucleotide sequences were obtained from four HPS case-patients and four yellow pygmy rice rats of the M genome segment. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that rodent-borne viruses and viruses from three HPS case-patients form a well-supported clade and share a 96.4% identity with the previously characterized Central Plata hantavirus. These results suggest that yellow pygmy rice rat (O. flavescens) may be the host for Central Plata, a hantavirus associated with HPS in the southern area of Uruguay.[
ISSN:1080-6040
1080-6059