Summary: | 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, RNA<i>later</i>™-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 (<i>Niviventer confucianus</i>) in Vietnam, Thailand; orthohantavirus Anjo strain in the black rat (<i>Rattus rattus</i>) in Madagascar; and Puumala orthohantavirus Hokkaido strain in the grey-sided vole (<i>Myodes rufocanus</i>) in Japan. The Hokkaido strain of Puumala virus was also detected in the large Japanese field mouse (<i>Apodemus speciosus</i>) and small Japanese field mouse (<i>Apodemus argenteus</i>), with evidence of host-switching as determined by co-phylogeny mapping.
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