Susceptibility of laboratory and wild rodents to Rattus or Apodemus-type hantaviruses.
Adult Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus), Apodemus agrarius, Meriones unguiculatus, Clethrionomys rufocanus, and Apodemus argenteus were inoculated with Rattus-type (SR-11, KI-262, and TB-314) or Apodemus-type (Hantaan 76-118) hantaviruses. Production of serum antibody to the inoculated virus (IAHA titres of 1:32 to 1:4 096) was obsersved in all rodent species 10 weeks after virus inoculation. Rattus-type virus was detected in some organs of all the rodent species employed except of Apodemus agrarius. Apodemus-type virus was found only in some organs of Apodemus agrarius. Newborn Wistar rats induced antibody in high titres to both Rattus- and Apodemus-type hantaviruses. Rattus-type virus was detected in all the organs examined for up to 6 weeks after inoculation, whereas Apodemus-type virus disappeared from all organs except of brain and lung tissues. The virulence of the three Rattus-type viruses to newborn rats was different. These findings indicate that the susceptibility of rodents may vary depending on the combination of rodent species and virus strains; they also suggest that the various species of rodents may be the reservoir animals of hantavirus infection in nature.
Kawamura
K
K
Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Zhang
X K
XK
Arikawa
J
J
Takashima
I
I
Dempo
K
K
Hashimoto
N
N
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000382:microbiology*; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000382:microbiology; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005849:Gerbillinae / Q000382:microbiology; D006476:Orthohantavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D006480:Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / Q000382:microbiology; D009115:Muridae / Q000382:microbiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains / Q000382:microbiology*; D012377:Rodentia / Q000382:microbiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D014709:Vero Cells
D000956:Antigens, Viral