No abstract

In July 2014, an outbreak of severe haemorrhagic disease in a domestic pig population, was reported in San‐Pedro, the second seaport city of Ivory Coast. Animals of all age groups developed clinical signs consistent with African swine fever (ASF). Tissue and serum samples from dead pigs were sent to the laboratory for diagnostic confirmation and molecular characterization based on the partial B646L (p72), the full E183L (p54) gene and the central variable region of the B602L gene. The PCR results confirmed the outbreak of ASF. Phylogenetic analyses based on p72 and p54 sequences showed that the San‐Pedro 2014 outbreak virus strain belongs to p72 genotype I. The Analysis of the tetrameric amino acid repeat regions of the B602L gene showed two repeat signatures which differ by an extra A = CAST in the second signature. The ASFV sequence of the San‐Pedro 2014 outbreak strain is closely related to historical and recent ASFV strains collected in Angola and Cameroon whose ships have repeatedly visited the seaport of San‐Pedro from March to June 2014. The 2014 viruses are distinct from the strains involved in the previous ASF wave in 1996 in Ivory Coast.

No abstract

After the 2017 Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak in Likati, a district in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, we sampled small mammals from the location where the primary case-patient presumably acquired the infection. None tested positive for EBOV RNA or antibodies against EBOV, highlighting the ongoing challenge in detecting animal reservoirs for EBOV.

The multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis; M. natalensis) serves as the main reservoir for the zoonotic arenavirus Lassa virus (LASV), and this has led to considerable investigation into the distribution of LASV and other related arenaviruses in this host species. In contrast to the situation with arenaviruses, the presence of other viruses in M. natalensis remains largely unexplored. In this study, herpesviruses and polyomaviruses were identified and partially characterized by PCR methods, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis. In tissues sampled from M. natalensis populations in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali, six new DNA viruses (four betaherpesviruses, one gammaherpesvirus and one polyomavirus) were identified. Phylogenetic analysis based on glycoprotein B amino acid sequences showed that the herpesviruses clustered with cytomegaloviruses and rhadinoviruses of multiple rodent species. The complete circular genome of the newly identified polyomavirus was amplified by PCR. Amino acid sequence analysis of the large T antigen or VP1 showed that this virus clustered with a known polyomavirus from a house mouse (species Mus musculus polyomavirus 1). These two polyomaviruses form a clade with other rodent polyomaviruses, and the newly identified virus represents the third known polyomavirus of M. natalensis. This study represents the first identification of herpesviruses and the discovery of a novel polyomavirus in M. natalensis. In contrast to arenaviruses, we anticipate that these newly identified viruses represent a low zoonotic risk due to the normally highly restricted specificity of members of these two DNA virus families to their individual mammalian host species.