Abstract
The recent discovery that multiple species of shrews and moles (order Eulipotyphla, families Soricidae and Talpidae) from Europe, Asia, Africa and/or North America harbour genetically distinct viruses belonging to the family Hantaviridae (order Bunyavirales) has prompted a further exploration of their host diversification. In analysing thousands of frozen, RNAlater-preserved and ethanol-fixed tissues from bats (order Chiroptera) by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), ten hantaviruses have been detected to date in bat species belonging to the suborder Yinpterochiroptera (families Hipposideridae, Pteropodidae and Rhinolophidae) and the suborder Yangochiroptera (families Emballonuriade, Nycteridae and Vespertilionidae). Of these, six hantaviruses are from Asia (Xuân Son virus and Dakrông virus in Vietnam; Láibin virus in China and Myanmar; Huángpí virus and Lóngquán virus in China; and Quezon virus in the Philippines); three are from Africa (Mouyassué virus in Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopia; Magboi virus in Sierra Leone; and Makokou virus in Gabon); and one from Europe (Brno virus in the Czech Republic). Molecular identification of many more bat-borne hantaviruses is expected. However, thus far, none of these newfound viruses has been isolated in cell culture and it is unclear if they cause infection or disease in humans. Future research must focus on myriad unanswered questions about the genetic diversity and geographic distribution, as well as the pathogenic potential, of bat-borne viruses of the family Hantaviridae.
Highlights
As recently as a decade ago, the single exception to the strict rodent association of hantaviruses was Thottapalayam virus, a long-unclassified virus originally isolated from the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) (Carey et al, 1971)
Analysis of the genome of Thottapalayam virus strongly supported an ancient non-rodent host origin and an early evolutionary divergence from rodent-borne hantaviruses (Song et al, 2007a; Yadav et al, 2007). Equipped with this information and employing reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), genetically distinct hantaviruses were detected in multiple species of shrews from widely separated geographic regions in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America
In addition to challenging the conventional view that rodents are the sole or principal reservoirs of hantaviruses, the discovery of soricidborne hantaviruses suggested that moles might harbour hantaviruses, and as predicted, several talpid-borne hantaviruses have been found in Europe, Asia and North America (Yanagihara et al, 2014)
Summary
As recently as a decade ago, the single exception to the strict rodent association of hantaviruses was Thottapalayam virus, a long-unclassified virus originally isolated from the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) (Carey et al, 1971).
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