First Molecular Evidence for Puumala Hantavirus in Poland

Hanan Ali,Magdalena Mikowska,Rainer Ulrich,Stephan Drewes,Gerald Heckel,Edyta Sadowska,Martin Groschup,Pawel Koteja

doi:10.3390/v6010340

Abstract

Puumala virus (PUUV) causes mild to moderate cases of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), and is responsible for the majority of hantavirus infections of humans in Fennoscandia, Central and Western Europe. Although there are relatively many PUUV sequences available from different European countries, little is known about the presence of this virus in Poland. During population studies in 2009 a total of 45 bank voles were trapped at three sites in north-eastern Poland, namely islands on Dejguny and Dobskie Lakes and in a forest near Mikołajki. S and M segment-specific RT-PCR assays detected PUUV RNA in three animals from the Mikołajki site. The obtained partial S and M segment sequences demonstrated the highest similarity to the corresponding segments of a PUUV strain from Latvia. Analysis of chest cavity fluid samples by IgG ELISA using a yeast-expressed PUUV nucleocapsid protein resulted in the detection of two seropositive samples, both being also RT-PCR positive. Interestingly, at the trapping site in Mikołajki PUUV-positive bank voles belong to the Carpathian and Eastern genetic lineages within this species. In conclusion, we herein present the first molecular evidence for PUUV in the rodent reservoir from Poland.

Highlights

Hantaviruses, family Bunyaviridae, are enveloped viruses with a trisegmented RNA genome of negative polarity [1]
During August 2009 a total of 45 bank voles were trapped in the north-eastern part of Poland
Serological screening of chest cavity fluid from 44 of 45 bank voles by an in-house IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a yeast-expressed Puumala virus (PUUV) nucleocapsid protein revealed two seropositive samples, both from animals trapped in Mikołajki forest (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Hantaviruses, family Bunyaviridae, are enveloped viruses with a trisegmented RNA genome of negative polarity [1]. Hantavirus infections have been detected with highly variable annual case numbers in human patients and were identified in different reservoir species in most of Europe [5]. Consistent with the distribution of the bank vole in the main parts of continental Europe PUUV was detected in most European countries including Finland, north Sweden, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Greece and the European part of Russia [7,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]. In Poland, hantavirus-caused infections are notifiable under the national epidemiological surveillance system since 2007, but the number of officially recorded cases remains low: 3–9 cases per year (which includes cases related to hantaviruses other than PUUV) [33]. In this study bank voles trapped in north-eastern Poland were investigated by serology and RT-PCR for the presence of PUUV infections

Results and Discussion

Rodent Trapping and Dissection

Serological Investigations

Sequence Comparison and Phylogenetic Analyses

Conclusions