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Published Date: 2012-02-06 20:40:11
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Hantavirus update 2012 - Africa: Cote d'Ivoire
Archive Number: 20120206.1034694

HANTAVIRUS UPDATE 2012 - AFRICA: COTE D'IVOIRE
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Date: 26 Jan 2012
Source: Journal of Virology 9(34): 12 pp. [edited]
http://www.virologyj.com/content/pdf/1743-422X-9-34.pdf


[Although ProMED-mail does not frequently post published journal reports, information on non-rodent hantaviruses from Africa are rare and worth sharing with ProMED subscribers. - Mod.TY]

L Sumibcay, B Kadjo, SH Gu, HJ Kang, BK Lim, JA Cook, JW Song, R Yanagihara. Divergent lineage of a novel hantavirus in the banana pipistrelle (_Neoromicia nanus_) in Cote d'Ivoire. 

Abstract 
Recently identified hantaviruses harbored by shrews and moles (order Soricomorpha) suggest that other mammals having shared ancestry may serve as reservoirs. To investigate this possibility, archival tissues from 213 insectivorous bats (order Chiroptera) were analyzed for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Following numerous failed attempts, hantavirus RNA was detected in ethanol-fixed liver tissue from 2 banana pipistrelles (_Neoromicia nanus_), captured near Mouyassue village in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, in June 2011. 

Phylogenetic analysis of partial L-segment sequences using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods revealed that the newfound hantavirus, designated Mouyassue virus (MOUV), was highly divergent and basal to all other rodent- and soricomorph-borne hantaviruses, except for Nova virus in the European common mole (_Talpa europaea_). Full genome sequencing of MOUV and further surveys of other bat species for hantaviruses, now underway, will provide critical insights into the evolution and diversification of hantaviruses. 

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[One hopes that this interesting paper will lead to a search for additional hantaviruses in bats around the world and a more extensive study of this hantavirus in the banana pipistrelle and other bats in the Cote d'Ivoire and other West African countries, as well as evidence for infection by this virus in humans and other vertebrates.

Images of the bats, a phylogenetic tree of the virus, and a map of the study area in Cote d'Ivoire can be accessed at the above URL. - Mod.TY

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1CnS.]

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