Detection and Characterization of Homologues of Human Hepatitis Viruses and Pegiviruses in Rodents and Bats in Vietnam

Abstract

Rodents and bats are now widely recognised as important sources of zoonotic virus infections in other mammals, including humans. Numerous surveys have expanded our knowledge of diverse viruses in a range of rodent and bat species, including their origins, evolution, and range of hosts. In this study of pegivirus and human hepatitis-related viruses, liver and serum samples from Vietnamese rodents and bats were examined by PCR and sequencing. Nucleic acids homologous to human hepatitis B, C, E viruses were detected in liver samples of 2 (1.3%) of 157 bats, 38 (8.1%), and 14 (3%) of 470 rodents, respectively. Hepacivirus-like viruses were frequently detected (42.7%) in the bamboo rat, Rhizomys pruinosus, while pegivirus RNA was only evident in 2 (0.3%) of 638 rodent serum samples. Complete or near-complete genome sequences of HBV, HEV and pegivirus homologues closely resembled those previously reported from rodents and bats. However, complete coding region sequences of the rodent hepacivirus-like viruses substantially diverged from all of the currently classified variants and potentially represent a new species in the Hepacivirus genus. Of the viruses identified, their routes of transmission and potential to establish zoonoses remain to be determined.

High prevalence and genetic diversity of hepatitis B viruses in insectivorous bats from China

“…These results suggesting that HBV originated in bats a long time ago, possibly during the early phases of bat evolution, and the different species of bat HBVs have since co-evolved with their host species. Combined with previous studies (Drexler et al, 2013;He et al, 2013He et al, , 2015Nie et al, 2018;Van Nguyen et al, 2018;Velkov et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018), these data indicate that bats should be an important natural reservoir of orthohepadnaviruses.…”

“…This is the first time to report HBV in Myotis fimbriatus, Myotis pequinius, and Myotis ricketti bats. Miniopterus schreibersii and Myotis davidii had been found positive to HBV previously (He et al, 2013;He et al, 2015;Nie et al, 2018;Van Nguyen et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018). Bat species that were negative to HBV in this study might be caused by small sample size and whether they carry HBV need to be further investigated by increasing sample size.…”

“…Initially we obtained 220 bp DNA fragments in 13 bats by nested PCR with primary primer pairs (HBV-F1 and HBV-R) and nested primer pair (HBV-F2 and HBV-R) as previous described (Van Nguyen et al, 2018). Then we tried to extend the sequences of the initial PCR amplified region on both directions with degenerated primers.…”

“…Phylogenetic studies of HBVs detected in different bat species put forward a theory that bat hepadnaviruses may be the origin of primate hepadnaviruses (Drexler et al, 2013;Littlejohn et al, 2016;Locarnini et al, 2013). In Asia, bat HBVs have been detected in Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia and China (He et al, 2013;He et al, 2015;Nie et al, 2018;Van Nguyen et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018). In China, bat HBVs were studied in bats collected mainly in the South China, which are close to Vietnam and Myanmar including Yunnan and Guangxi provinces (He et al, 2013(He et al, , 2015Nie et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2018).…”

Semi‐quantitative duplex RT ‐ PCR reveals the low occurrence of Porcine Pegivirus and Atypical Porcine Pestivirus in diagnostic samples from the United States

“…Pegiviruses are divided into 11 species ( Pegivirus A‐K ) (Smith et al., ) and have been identified from a variety of mammalian species including human, baboons, chimpanzees, monkeys, tamarins, bats, camels, horses, rodents and pigs (Tang et al., ; Thézé, Lowes, Parker, & Pybus, ). Pegiviruses have been detected in North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe, indicating global presence of this virus (Bailey et al., ; de Souza et al., ; N'Guessan et al., ; Thézé et al., ; Van Nguyen et al., ). In 2016, Porcine Pegiviruses (PPgV) were discovered in pigs from Germany using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of serum from asymptomatic animals, and subsequent PCR testing detected PPgV in 2.2% of serum samples (Baechlein et al., ).…”