Bicolored White-toothed Shrews as Reservoir for Borna Disease Virus, Bavaria, Germany

Manon Bourg,Jorge A Encarnação,Christiane Herden,Markus Eickmann,Hildburg Lange-Herbst,Daniel Nobach,Sibylle Herzog

doi:10.3201/eid1912.131076

Abstract

Bicolored White-toothed Shrews as Reservoir for Borna Disease Virus, Bavaria, Germany

Highlights

To the Editor: Borna disease (BD) is a fatal neurologic disorder in horses and sheep
To investigate whether small mammals, especially bicolored whitetoothed shrews (Crocidura leucodon), which act as Borna disease virus (BDV) reservoirs in Switzerland [1,2], harbor BDV in diseaseendemic areas in Bavaria, Germany, we screened 120 small mammals (53 from the family Cricetidae, 41 from the family Muridae, and 26 from the family Soricidae) (Table)
We determined whether BDV infections in small mammals might have different disease courses and whether shrew-tohorse virus transmission occurs

Summary

Introduction

To the Editor: Borna disease (BD) is a fatal neurologic disorder in horses and sheep. To investigate whether small mammals, especially bicolored whitetoothed shrews (Crocidura leucodon), which act as BDV reservoirs in Switzerland [1,2], harbor BDV in diseaseendemic areas in Bavaria, Germany, we screened 120 small mammals (53 from the family Cricetidae, 41 from the family Muridae, and 26 from the family Soricidae) (Table). We determined whether BDV infections in small mammals might have different disease courses and whether shrew-tohorse virus transmission occurs. In 2/4 BDV-seropositive C. leucodon shrews (#2001 and #5017) BDV RNA was amplified from the brain.

Results

Conclusion