Dobrava hantavirus variants found in Apodemus flavicollis mice in Kırklareli Province, Turkey

Abstract

Hantaviruses infect humans via inhalation of viral particles within secretions of infected rodents or rarely through direct contact with infected rodents. Determining the prevalence of hantavirus infections among rodent populations is of vital importance to obtain information on hantavirus-related cases and to predict possible outbreaks. We hypothesized that DOBV strains circulating in the Thrace Region in Turkey would be related to other Balkan DOBV strains. In this study, hantavirus infections in the rodent population of the Kırklareli-İğneada Region (north-western Turkey, near the Bulgarian border) were investigated. This region is of particular importance, as it is located in the south-eastern margin of the European continent and was used as an entrance point of Asian faunal elements into Europe. DOBV infection was detected in eight of 73 rodents; all were of the Apodemus flavicollis species. Partial sequences of the viral S-, M-, and L-genome segments were recovered and compared with previously reported DOBV sequences. The newly characterized Turkish strains were similar to other DOBV variants. Silent nucleotide mutations were dominant. The hantavirus prevalence in the İğneada region was similar to what has been reported in Greece and Bulgaria. For the first time, the M-segment sequences of DOBV from Turkey were recovered and genetic data of hantaviruses from Thrace region of Turkey were obtained.

Dynamics of Puumala hantavirus outbreak in Black Sea Region, Turkey

“…DOBV RNA has been identified in A. flavicollis and A. uralensis in the outbreak region (Oktem et al, ). Recently, DOBV was identified in A. flavicollis in the Thrace Region (near Bulgaria), and TULV RNA was identified in Microtus obscurus in the East Anatolian Region of the country (Polat et al, , ).…”

“…Recently, DOBV was identified in A. flavicollis in the Thrace Region (near Bulgaria), and TULV RNA was identified in Microtus obscurus in the East Anatolian Region of the country (Polat et al, 2019(Polat et al, , 2018.…”

Genomic and in silico Structural Characterization of Dobrava-Belgrade orthohantavirus Isolate from European Side of Turkey

“…After these outbreaks and diagnoses, a field study was performed by collecting Apodemus flavicollis mice from the Kirklareli province by our team, and the circulation of DOBV was confirmed in this species of mice both serologically and molecularly [11]. Studies done to date have shown that DOBV causes severe form of HFRS in humans, and the mortality rate is higher in DOBV infections than the other HFRS causing orthohantaviruses.…”

“…In addition, the reservoir host Apodemus flavicollis is distributed in both European side and Anatolia (Asian side of Turkey), and it shows different genetic properties on these sides [26][27]. Therefore, orthohantaviruses that exist in this region, might have genetic properties of viruses from both of these continents [11,25]. Thus, there is great importance to obtain whole genome sequences of DOBV from this region as these might help us to understand the genetic relation between orthohantaviruses from both Asia and Europe.…”

“…Some rodent species identified as reservoirs for family Hantaviridae, genus Orthohantavirus, species DOBV, PUUV, Tula orthohantavirus (TULV), and Seoul orthohantavirus (SEOV), are widely present in Turkey, including Myodes glareolus (PUUV), Apodemus flavicollis (DOBV), Apodemus agrarius (DOBV), Microtus arvalis (TULV), and Rattus norvegicus (SEOV) [3][4][5][6]. The initial detection of orthohantaviruses in Turkey was in Zonguldak and around provinces in 2009, and later, it also detected in Giresun province and in the western Black Sea region, European cost of Istanbul, Kirklareli province and Erzurum province with molecular and serological techniques from both humans and rodents [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”