Ghosts of infections past: using archival samples to understand a century of monkeypox virus prevalence among host communities across space and time

Monkeypox viruses circulate in distantly-related small mammal species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“…Whereas primates are assumed to be incidental hosts, different species of rodents are considered to be potential reservoirs of the virus (such as Cricetomys, Graphiurus, Funisciurus and Heliosciurus sp). However, empirical data to support these claims is scarce and mainly based on serological data or DNA amplicons without con rmation by sequencing [11][12][13][14][15] .…”

“…Whereas primates are assumed to be incidental hosts, different species of rodents are considered to be potential reservoirs of the virus (such as Cricetomys, Graphiurus, Funisciurus and Heliosciurus sp). However, empirical data to support these claims is scarce and mainly based on serological data or DNA amplicons without con rmation by sequencing [11][12][13][14][15] .Since 2010 we have been monitoring the biodiversity of small mammals and their pathogens in several areas in the Ituri and Tshopo provinces of the DRC. A subset (n=256) of samples (random selection of samples that were completely submerged in ethanol, Supplementary excel le: 'small_mammals_MPXV'), including tissues collected from rodents (n=97), shrews (n=93) and bats (n=66) over a period of six years, was tested for the presence of MPXV DNA using two PCR assays targeting different viral genes (P4A and haemagglutinin) and positives were con rmed by Sanger sequencing 16,17 .…”

On the role of (and threat to) natural history museums in mammal conservation: an African small mammal perspective

“…Given the important role wild small mammals may have in zoonotic disease transmission across Africa (Han et al 2015, Diagne et al 2017, it was surprising to find so few examples that relied on historic specimens housed in museums for disease investigations (DiEuliis et al 2016). The most clear cut example involved screening over 100 museum specimens of African rope squirrels Funisciurus Trouessart, 1880 for monkeypox virus, a study which resulted in moving evidence of monkeypox infections in host species back almost half a century earlier than originally proposed (Tiee et al 2018). The rest of the studies found were mostly related to active field surveillance for detection of reservoir species of Ebola haemorrhagic fever virus (Leirs et al 1999).…”

The Role of aDNA in Understanding the Coevolutionary Patterns of Human Sexually Transmitted Infections

“…Both disease lesions [ 113 ] and cancer specimens [ 114 ] of increasing age have been successfully sequenced and have the scope to include pathogen DNA. Museum collections also represent vital repositories of ancient host and pathogen DNA [ 115 , 116 , 117 ]. If macroscopic samples of soft tissue or bone are not preserved, then sedimentary ancient DNA can yield ancient pathogen DNA sequences.…”