Presence of Segmented Flaviviruses in Wild Rodents, Pennsylvania, USA

Identifying viruses in synanthropic animals is necessary for understanding the origin of many viruses that can infect human hosts and developing strategies to prevent new zoonotic infections. The white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, is one of the most abundant rodent species in the northeastern...

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Published inEmerging infectious diseases Vol. 26; no. 8; pp. 1810 - 1817
Main Authors Arvind Kumar, Kurt J. Vandegrift, Himanshu Sharma, Satyapramod Murthy, Laura D. Kramer, Richard Ostfeld, Peter Hudson, Amit Kapoor
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 01.08.2020
Subjects
Alongshan
arbovirus
deer mice virome
flaviviruses
Jingmen
northeastern United States
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ISSN1080-6040
1080-6059
DOI10.3201/eid2608.190986

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Summary:Identifying viruses in synanthropic animals is necessary for understanding the origin of many viruses that can infect human hosts and developing strategies to prevent new zoonotic infections. The white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, is one of the most abundant rodent species in the northeastern United States. We characterized the serum virome of 978 free-ranging P. leucopus mice caught in Pennsylvania. We identified many new viruses from 26 different virus families. Among these viruses was a highly divergent segmented flavivirus whose genetic relatives were recently identified in ticks, mosquitos, and vertebrates, including febrile patients. The novel flavi-like segmented virus, isolated from ticks in Pennsylvania, shares ˂70% aa identity with known viruses in the highly conserved region of the viral polymerase. Our data will enable researchers to develop molecular reagents to further characterize this virus and its relatives infecting other hosts and to curtail their spread, if necessary.
ISSN:1080-6040
1080-6059
DOI:10.3201/eid2608.190986