Novel Arenavirus Isolates from Namaqua Rock Mice, Namibia, Southern Africa

Abstract

Arenaviruses are feared as agents that cause viral hemorrhagic fevers. We report the identification, isolation, and genetic characterization of 2 novel arenaviruses from Namaqua rock mice in Namibia. These findings extend knowledge of the distribution and diversity of arenaviruses in Africa.

Mammarenaviruses of Rodents, South Africa and Zimbabwe

“…The isolates from this study are provisionally named for their locations of origin ( Table 1 ; Figure 5 ), but the isolates obtained from M. natalensis mice represent exemplar isolates of MOPV, and Merino Walk virus is clearly distinct. Although the apparent sharing of rodent hosts mitigates against species recognition within the mammarenaviruses ( 30 ), clarifying the interrelationships between the Bobomene, Witsand, and Omdraaivlei isolates and their relationship to the Mariental and Okahandja viruses from Namibia ( 31 ) and Bati virus from Angola ( 32 ) anticipates complete genomic characterization of the isolates.…”

Multiple Mammarenaviruses Circulating in Angolan Rodents

“…The relatively high overall prevalence of mammarenaviruses in this sample from Angola, reaching 8.3%, is essentially due to the prevalence of BITV in M. namaquensis, which is particularly robust: 28% in this study compared with 1.13% reported for the related OKAV from Namibia [14]. High local prevalences at two sampling sites tens of kilometres apart, Bibala (54.5%) and Tundavala (40.5%), indicate very active BITV infection in the area, probably enhanced by the high population density of the host, which was one of the dominant species in both localities.…”

“…The KP867641 L segment sequence appears to be a chimeric assembly, the first~4680 nt belonging to the L segment, the next~870 to the S segment and the last~1290 nt to the L segment. In the paper describing this virus [14], the authors pointed out that the first sequencing with 454 technology resulted in low coverage and an additional MiSeq sequencing was performed together with Sanger sequencing to complete missing parts of the genome. This virus genome characterisation in several steps may have contributed to the chimeric assembly of the L segment.…”

“…From a list of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs)-potential rodent species-given in Krásová et al [17], several, or their close relatives have been described as reservoirs of mammarenaviruses. Thus, for species having a geographical affinity with the Zambezian region, Mastomys natalensis lineage B-VI (sensu Colangelo et al [19]) is known to be the reservoir of Luna virus (LUAV) in Zambia and Tanzania [20,21] and Mopeia virus (MOPV) in Mozambique and Zimbabwe [22,23]; for species having geographical affinity with the South African region, Micaelamys namaquensis is known to harbour Okahandja virus (OKAV) and Mariental virus (MRLV) in Namibia [14]; and finally, for species with geographical affinity with the Congolian region, Grammomys sp. is the carrier of Solwezi virus (SOLV) [24].…”

Taxonomy of the family Arenaviridae and the order Bunyavirales: update 2018

“…Since then, the genus Mammarenavirus has been extended by 8 species for novel murid viruses discovered in Africa and Asia [3,8,11,15,21,25] (TaxoProps 2014.013aV.A.v3. Mammarenavirus_2sp, 2015.001aM, 2016.014aM and 2016.019aM.A.v2.Mammarenavirus_sp).…”