title: Yellow pigmy rice rat (Oligoryzomys flavescens) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in Uruguay.
abstract: During 5,230 trapping nights, 672 small mammals were trapped in the areas where most hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases occur in Uruguay. Yellow pygmy rice rats (Oligoryzomys flavescens) were the only rodents that showed evidence of antibodies to hantavirus, with a seroprevalence of 2.6%. The rodents were trapped in all the explored environments, and most of the seropositive rodents were found in habitats frequented by humans. Nucleotide sequences were obtained from four HPS case-patients and four yellow pygmy rice rats of the M genome segment. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that rodent-borne viruses and viruses from three HPS case-patients form a well-supported clade and share a 96.4% identity with the previously characterized Central Plata hantavirus. These results suggest that yellow pygmy rice rat (O. flavescens) may be the host for Central Plata, a hantavirus associated with HPS in the southern area of Uruguay.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delfraro
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clara
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tomé
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Achaval
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Levis
authors.forename: Gladys
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Calderón
authors.forename: Delia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Enria
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Russi
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arbiza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D006476:Orthohantavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018804:Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D051381:Rats / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D014583:Uruguay / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral