INTRODUCTION: Rodent-borne hantaviruses cause severe human diseases. We completed a serological survey of hantavirus infection in rural inhabitants of Turvo County, in the southern State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in which seropositivity for hantavirus was correlated to previous disease in the participants. METHODS: The levels of IgG antibodies to hantavirus Araraquara in the sera of 257 individuals were determined using an immunoenzymatic assay. RESULTS: IgG antibodies to hantavirus were found in 2.3% of the participants. All seropositive participants reported previous disease with symptoms suggestive of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Human infections causing unreported cardiopulmonary syndrome probably occur in the southern State of Santa Catarina.

Our results showed that hantavirus infections occurred in Cássia dos Coqueiros, completely unrecognized, even before hantaviruses were described in the Americas.

Infections by Hantavirus (Bunyaviridae) can cause severe human diseases, such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Eurasia and cardiopulmonary syndrome in the Americas. These diseases are emergent and became a serious public health problem worldwide. Thus, rapid, sensitive and reliable methods for diagnosis of hantavirus infection are necessary in order to manage patients and control this rodent-borne virosis. Serological methods, such as neutralization tests, immunoblots and enzyme immunoassays using hantavirus-recombinant proteins as antigens, are discussed in this article, as well as new methods such as an immunochromatographic test. Hantavirus genome detection by different kinds of reverse transcription-PCR, including the real-time variant, is also discussed.

Parvoviruses (family Parvoviridae) are small, single-stranded DNA viruses. Many 30 parvoviral pathogens of medical, veterinary and ecological importance have been identified. In 31 this study, we used high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to investigate the diversity of parvoviruses 32 infecting wild and domestic animals in Brazil. We identified 21 parvovirus sequences (including 33 twelve nearly complete genomes and nine partial genomes) in samples derived from rodents, bats, 34 opossums, birds and cattle in Pernambuco, São Paulo, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul states. These 35 sequences were investigated using phylogenetic and distance-based approaches, and were thereby 36 classified into eight parvovirus species (six of which have not been described previously), 37representing six distinct genera in the subfamily Parvovirinae. Our findings extend the known 38 biogeographic range of previously characterized parvovirus species, and the known host range of 39 three parvovirus genera (Dependovirus, Aveparvovirus, and Tetraparvovirus). Moreover, our 40 investigation provides a window into the ecological dynamics of parvovirus infections in 41 vertebrates, revealing that many parvovirus genera contain well-defined sub-lineages that 42 circulate widely throughout the world within particular taxonomic groups of hosts. 43