Hantavirus in street rodents in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hantavirus infection has been a notifiable disease since 2008in Hong Kong. A total of 44 cases were reported from 1995 to 2013. Rodents are the major hosts of pathogenic hantaviruses. However, the epidemiology data about hantavirus infection in rodents is not known. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of hantavirus infection in rodents and strains of hantaviruses prevailing in Hong Kong. A total of 502 street rodents were collected from various districts between October 2008 and July 2013 and the majority was Rattus norvegicus. Spleen and kidney tissues were extracted to perform RT-PCR. Among 1004 tissue samples, hantaviruses were detected in 15 samples (1.49%) from 11 rodents (2.19%). The hantavirus positive rodents were widely distributed in Hong Kong in which most cases were found from Yuen Long and Wong Tai Sin. Hantavirus infection cases were mainly reported in early-spring and summer. Phylogenetic analysis of the partial nucleocapsid protein gene of the positive rodent sequences revealed that all of them belonged to Seoul virus (SEOV). Three strains of SEOV which were genetically close to strains in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, were identified.