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

Abstract

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.[

Juquitiba-like Hantavirus from 2 Nonrelated Rodent Species, Uruguay

“…may be interpreted as a secondary infection (spillover) (10). Interestingly, in the trapping area, the long-nosed mice are the most abundant rodent species, and the seroprevalence of hantavirus among them (6%) is higher than that previously reported in Uruguay (6). Black-footed pygmy rice rats are the second most abundant rodent captured; however, the seroprevalence of hantavirus among them (3.2%) is lower.…”

“…Total RNA was extracted from lung tissue of seropositive rodents and from serum of the HPS patient (6). Nested or seminested reverse transcription-PCRs (RT-PCRs) were performed for partial small (S) and medium (M) segments (8,9).…”

“…Each of these viruses is carried by the yellow pigmy rice rat (Oligoryzomys fl avescens) (6). We report an HPS case in Maldonado, Uruguay, and describe the serologic and genetic analysis carried out on rodents captured at the presumed site of infection.…”

The Taxonomic Status ofOligoryzomys mattogrossae(Allen 1916) (Rodentia: Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae), Reservoir of Anajatuba Hantavirus

“…Six Brazilian Oligoryzomys species are known as hantavirus reservoirs: O. nigripes (Olfers, 1818), the host of Juquitiba and Itapua viruses (Suzuki et al, 2004;Oliveira et al, 2009); O. flavescens (Waterhouse, 1837) the host of Central Plata virus (Delfraro et al, 2003); O. fornesi (Massoia, 1973), the host of Anajatuba virus (Rosa et al, 2005) and Juquitiba virus (Guterres et al, 2014); O. microtis (Allen, 1916), the host of Rio Mamoré virus (Ritcher et al, 2010); O utiaritensis (Allen, 1916) the host of Castelo dos Sonhos virus , and O. chacoensis (Myers and Carleton, 1981) of Bermejo virus . Other Oligoryzomys species with distribution out of Brazil are also hantavirus reservoirs: O. fulvescens (Saussure, 1860) is the reservoir of Choco virus, O. delicatus (Allen and Chapman, 1897) of Maporal virus, O. longicaudatus (Bennett, 1832) virus of Andes, and O. brendae Massoia, 1988, of Oran virus (see Teta et al, 2013, for identification of the latter reservoir species).…”

Pequenos mamíferos não-voadores do Planalto Atlântico de São Paulo: identificação, história natural e ameaças

“…Em outras regiões já foi capturada em diversos ambientes alterados, como restos de plantação de milho cercada por culturas anuais na Argentina (Booman et al 2009), áreas cultivadas nos pampas na Argentina (Mills 1991), em bordas entre os pampas e plantações (Ellis et al 1997, Bilec et al 2007, em locais próximos a residências e áreas rurais no Uruguai (Delfraro et al 2003), em granjas avícolas e ocasionalmente em barracões na Argentina (Mino et al 2007), em área de atividade humana no sudeste do Brasil (Bonvicino et al 2002) e em área de campo de gramíneas protegida no Rio Grande do Sul (Pedó et al 2010). No Planalto, é bem mais comum nas áreas abertas de agricultura do que nos fragmentos de mata (F. Umetsu, dados não publicados).…”