Anjozorobe Hantavirus, a New Genetic Variant of Thailand Virus Detected in Rodents from Madagascar

Abstract

Until now, there was only serological evidence that hantaviruses were circulating in rodents and infecting humans from Madagascar. To assess the presence of a hantavirus on the island, between October, 2008, and March, 2010, we sampled 585 rodents belonging to seven species in the Anjozorobe-Angavo forest corridor, 70 km north from the capital city Antananarivo. A hantavirus was detected from organs of the ubiquist roof rat (Rattus rattus) and of the endemic Major's tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus majori). Amazingly, sequence analysis of the S (small), M (medium), and L (large) coding DNA sequence of this virus showed that the Anjozorobe strain (proposed name) was a new genetic variant of Thailand virus (THAIV) that comprises other variants found in Southeast Asia. Because THAIV is suspected of causing hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in humans, ongoing studies are addressing the risk of infection by this new variant in the Malagasy population.

Decoding the RNA Viromes in Rodent Lungs Provides New Insight Into the Origin and Evolutionary Patterns of Rodent-borne Pathogens in Mainland Southeast Asia

“…Eight strains were determined for genome sequences, and three strains were selected for sequencing of partial L, M, and S. The complete genome sequence (including non-coding regions (NCRs)) of these viruses showed more than 93.5% nucleotide (nt) identity with each other, suggesting that they all belonged to the same viral species. The open reading frame (ORF) for L of this species showed 79%-81.4% nt identity with those of Anjozorobe HanVs detected in R. rattus and Eliurus majori from Madagascar in 2014 [43], the M and S ORFs of this species showed 95%-96% and 96.1%-99.4% nt identities with those of Thailand virus strains found in B. indica of Thailand in 1994 and 2004 [44,45] (Table S5). Phylogenetic trees based on the complete M segment-encoded glycoprotein precursor (GPC), L segment-encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), and S segment-encoded nucleocapsid protein (N) amino acid sequences were constructed (Figure 3).…”

Discovery of hantavirus circulating among Rattus rattus in French Mayotte island, Indian Ocean

“…2a, b), following the methodology described above. This analysis showed that MAYOV clusters within the Thailand hantavirus clade closer to the isolates circulating in the Indian Ocean, South-East Asia (Hugot et al, 2006;Plyusnina et al, 2009;Johansson et al, 2010) and Madagascar (Reynes et al, 2014), rather than the Murinae-associated hantaviruses circulating in continental Africa (Klempa et al, 2006(Klempa et al, , 2012Witkowski et al, 2014). The data suggested that both MAYOV and Anjozorobe virus, the closest variant within the Thailand hantavirus clade, may have resulted from a westward expansion of an ancestral South-East Asian hantavirus introduced with R. rattus (Cheke & Hume, 2008;Tollenaere et al, 2010).…”

Geographical distribution and relative risk of Anjozorobe virus (Thailand orthohantavirus) infection in black rats (Rattus rattus) in Madagascar

“…Although relatively few hantavirus studies have been carried out in Africa and the surrounding regions, since 2006 eight hantaviruses have been [ 14 ] identified in rodents, insectivores and bats in mainland Africa [ 17 – 24 ] whilst recently two hantaviruses were detected in the Indian Ocean region [ 25 , 26 ]. The two hantaviruses found in the Indian Ocean region both belonged to Thailand orthohantavirus (THAIV) specie which was primarily found in Southeast Asia [ 27 ].…”