Ljungan virus detected in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) from Northern Italy.
Identified in 1998, Ljungan virus (LV; Picornaviridae) causes type 1 diabetes-like symptoms and myocarditis in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from Sweden and Denmark, and may be a zoonotic agent of several important diseases (e.g., intrauterine fetal death, type 1 diabetes, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and myocarditis). Using a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay and sequence analysis, we detected LV in bank voles, and for the first time, in yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) collected during 2006 from a site in northern Italy. The global distribution of LV and its role as a mammalian pathogen deserve further attention.
Hauffe
Heidi C
HC
Environment and Natural Resources Area, IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione E Mach, Via E Mach 1, S Michele all'Adige, Italy. heidi.hauffe@iasma.it
Niklasson
Bo
B
Olsson
Therese
T
Bianchi
Alessandro
A
Rizzoli
Annapaola
A
Klitz
William
W
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000821:virology*; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D051189:Murinae / Q000821:virology*; D030061:Parechovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010850:Picornaviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D013045:Species Specificity