Molecular and Serological Evaluation of Hantavirus in Wild Rodents in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Southwest of Iran
-
Jamal Sarvari
,
Bahador Sarkari
,
Fatemeh Osooreh
,
Mehdi Fazlalipour
,
Mohammad Hassan Pouriayevali
,
Tahmineh Jalali
,
Mohammad Javad Ranjbar
,
Mostafa Salehi-Vaziri
Abstract
Background: Hantaviruses are mainly transmitted to humans through the inhalation of aerosolized excreta from infected rodent reservoirs. The present study was conducted to analyze the prevalence of hantavirus infection among rodents in the Boyer-Ahmad region.
Methods: A total of 52 rodents were captured in the Boyer-Ahmad region of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province during June to November 2014, using Sherman live traps. Blood and tissue samples were obtained from the heart and lungs, respectively. Hantavirus Pool 1 "Eurasia" IgG and Pool 2 "America" ELISA IgG kits were used to detect IgG antibodies against both Old World and New World hantaviruses. Moreover, total RNA extraction was performed on the lung tissue, and a pan-hantavirus nested RT-PCR was conducted to detect hantavirus RNA.
Results: Meriones persicus was the most abundant species (n=25, 48%). The results of the ELISA showed that all the serum samples from the rodents were negative for antibodies against both Eurasian and American hantaviruses. Moreover, no rodent tissue samples tested positive for the hantavirus RNA by the pan-hantavirus RT-PCR.
Conclusion: Although no hantavirus infection was detected in this study, the presence of hantavirus reservoirs in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province suggests that hantavirus circulation cannot be completely ruled out. Further studies with a larger sample size are recommended.
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4. Dobly A, Cochez C, Goossens E, De Bosschere H, Hansen P, Roels S, Hey-man P (2012) Sero-epidemiological study of the presence of hantaviruses in do¬mestic dogs and cats from Belgium. Res Vet Sci. 92: 221–224.
5. Torres-Perez F, Wilson L, Collinge SK, Har¬mon H, Ray C, Medina RA, Hjelle B (2010) Sin Nombre virus infection in field workers, Colorado, USA. Emerg Infect Dis. 16: 308.
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7. Kallio ER, Klingstrom J, Gustafsson E, Man¬ni T, Vaheri A, Henttonen H, Vapalahti O, Lundkvist A (2006) Prolonged sur¬vival of Puumala hantavirus outside the host: evidence for indirect transmission via the environ-ment. J Gen Virol. 87: 2127–2134.
8. Jonsson CB, Figueiredo LTM, Vapalahti O (2010) A global perspective on hanta-virus ecology, epidemiology and dis¬ease. Clin Microbiol Rev. 23: 412–441.
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10. Krautkramer E, Zeier M, Plyusnin A (2013) Hantavirus infection: an emerg-ing infec¬tious disease causing acute re¬nal failure.
Kidney Int. 83: 23–27.
11. Singh S, Numan A, Sharma D, Shukla R, Alexander A, Jain GK, Ahmad FJ, Keshar¬wani P (2022) Ep¬idemiology, virology and clinical as¬pects of hantavirus infections: an over¬view. Int J Environ Health Res. 32: 1815–1826.
12. Hamdan NES, Ng YL, Lee WB, Tan CS, Khan FAA, Chong YL (2017) Rodent species distribution and hantavirus sero-prevalence in residential and forested areas of Sarawak, Malaysia. Trop Life Sci Res. 28: 151.
13. Filippone C, Castel G, Murri S, Beaulieux F, Ermonval M, Jallet C, Wise EL, Ellis RJ, Marston DA, McElhinney LM (2016) Discovery of hantavirus circulating among Rattus rattus in French Mayotte island, Indian Ocean. J Gen Virol. 97: 1060–1065
14. Cosseddu GM, Sozio G, Valleriani F, Di Gennaro A, Pascucci I, Gavaudan S, Ma¬rianneau P, Monaco F (2017) Serologi¬cal survey of hanta¬virus and flavivirus among wild rodents in central Italy. Vec¬tor Borne Zoonotic Dis. 17: 777–779.
15. Lohmus M, Verner-Carlsson J, Borg O, Albihn A, Lundkvist A (2016) Hanta-virus in new geographic regions, Swe-den. Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 6: 31465.
16. Wang B, Cai CL, Li B, Zhang W, Zhu Y, Chen WH, Zhuo F, Shi ZL, Yang XL (2017) Detection and characterization of three zoonotic virus¬es in wild rodents and shrews from Shenzhen City, China. Virol Sin. 32: 290–297.
17. Klein TA, Kim HC, Chong ST, Kim JA, Lee SY, Kim WK, Nunn PV, Song JW (2015) Hantaan virus surveillance target-ing small mam¬mals at nightmare range, Re¬public of Korea. PLoS One. 10: e0118483.
18. Drewes S, Jeske K, Strakova P, Balciaus-kas L, Ryll R, Balciauskiene L, Kohl-hause D, Schnidrig GA, Hiltbrunner M, Špakova A (2021) Identification of a novel hanta¬virus strain in the root vole (Microtus oeconomus) in Lithuania. In-fect Genet Evol. 90: 104520.
19. Jeske K, Jacob J, Drewes S, Pfeffer M, Heckel G, Ulrich RG, Imholt C (2021) Han¬tavirus–Leptospira coinfections in small mammals from central Germany. Epi¬demiol Infect. 149: e97.
20. Vaheri A, Henttonen H, Voutilainen L, Mustonen J, Sironen T, Vapalahti O (2013) Hantavirus infections in Europe and their impact on public health. Rev Med Virol. 23: 35–49.
21. Chau R, Bhatt N, Manhica I, Candido S, de Deus N, Guiliche O, Tivane A, Evaristo LV, Guterres A, Monteiro V (2017) First serological evidence of hantavirus among febrile patients in Mozambique. Int J In¬fect Dis. 61: 51–55.
22. Chinikar S, Javadi AA, Hajiannia A, Ataei B, Jalali T, Khakifirouz S, Nowotny N, Schmidt-Chanasit J, Shahhosseini N (2014) First evidence of hantavirus in central Iran as an emerging viral dis¬ease. Adv Infect Dis. 4: 173–177.
23. Salehi-Vaziri M, Kaleji AS, Fazlalipour M, Jalali T, Mohammadi T, Khakifirouz S, Baniasadi V, Pouriayevali MH, Mahmoudi A, Tordo N (2019) Hantavirus infection in Iranian patients suspected to viral hem¬orrhagic fever. J Med Virol. 91: 1737–1742.
24. Salehi-Vaziri M, Sarvari J, Man¬surnejadan M, Shiri A, Joharinia N, Khoshbakht R, Jaberi O, Pouriayevali MH, Azad-Man-jiri S, Jalali T (2021) Evidence of hanta-virus circulation among municipal street sweepers, southwest of Iran. Vi¬rusdis-ease. 32: 251–254.
25. Klempa B, Fichet-Calvet E, Lecompte E, Auste B, Aniskin V, Meisel H, Denys C, Koivogui L, Ter Meulen J, Krüger DH (2006) Hantavirus in African wood mouse, Guinea. Emerg Infect Dis. 12: 838.
26. Mahmoudi A, Mostafavi E, Mohammadi A, Jalali T, Denys C, Nicolas V, Hugot JP, Lalis A, Salehi-Vaziri M (2023) The first identification of Tula orthohanta-virus in forest dormice from Iran. Mam-malia. 87: 405–412.
27. Azimi T, Nasrollahian S, Sabour S, Hadi N, Azimi L, Rahbarian N, Karimi A, Fallah F, Mansour-Ghanaie R, Hoseini-Alfat¬emi SM (2023) The first evidence of Seoul hantavirus, hepatitis E virus and rabies virus in Rat¬tus norvegicus in Tehran, Iran. Future Virol. 18: 691–697.
28. Tian H, Stenseth NC (2019) The ecologi-cal dynamics of hantavirus diseases. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 13: e0006901.
29. Khalil H, Hornfeldt B, Evander M, Mag-nusson M, Olsson G, Ecke F (2014) Dy-namics and drivers of hantavirus preva-lence in rodent populations. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 14: 537–551.
30. Sun XK, Shi YL, Huang P, Deng YL, Wu D, Liang L, Lin J (2014) Rats harboring Seoul hantavirus in Qingyuan, southern China, 2011–2013. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 45(5): 1058–1064.
31. Karami M, Hutterer R, Benda P, Siah-sarvie R, Krystufek B (2008) Annotated check-list of the mammals of Iran. Lynx (Praha). 39.
32. Darvish J, Mohammadi Z, Mahmoudi A, Siahsarvie R (2014) Faunistic and taxo-nomic study of rodents from northwest-ern Iran. Iran J Anim Biosyst. 10: 119–136.
2. Cueto GR, Cavia R, Bellomo C, Padula PJ, Suarez OV (2008) Prevalence of hanta-virus infection in wild Rattus norvegicus and R. rattus populations of Buenos Aires City, Argentina. Trop Med Int Health. 13: 46–51.
3. Shehata AA, Parvin R, Tasnim S, Duarte PM, Rodriguez-Morales AJ, Basiouni S (2025) The hidden threat: rodent-borne viruses and their impact on public health. Viruses. 17: 809.
4. Dobly A, Cochez C, Goossens E, De Bosschere H, Hansen P, Roels S, Hey-man P (2012) Sero-epidemiological study of the presence of hantaviruses in do¬mestic dogs and cats from Belgium. Res Vet Sci. 92: 221–224.
5. Torres-Perez F, Wilson L, Collinge SK, Har¬mon H, Ray C, Medina RA, Hjelle B (2010) Sin Nombre virus infection in field workers, Colorado, USA. Emerg Infect Dis. 16: 308.
6. Kitch BB, Meredith JT (2020) Zoonotic infections. Tintinalli’s emergency medi-cine. McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 1070–1078.
7. Kallio ER, Klingstrom J, Gustafsson E, Man¬ni T, Vaheri A, Henttonen H, Vapalahti O, Lundkvist A (2006) Prolonged sur¬vival of Puumala hantavirus outside the host: evidence for indirect transmission via the environ-ment. J Gen Virol. 87: 2127–2134.
8. Jonsson CB, Figueiredo LTM, Vapalahti O (2010) A global perspective on hanta-virus ecology, epidemiology and dis¬ease. Clin Microbiol Rev. 23: 412–441.
9. Lokugamage N, Kariwa H, Lokugamage K, Iwasa MA, Hagiya T, Yoshii K, Tachi A, Ando S, Fukushima H, Tsuchiya K (2004) Epizootiological and epidemio-log¬ical study of hantavirus infection in Ja¬pan. Microbiol Immunol. 48: 843–851.
10. Krautkramer E, Zeier M, Plyusnin A (2013) Hantavirus infection: an emerg-ing infec¬tious disease causing acute re¬nal failure.
Kidney Int. 83: 23–27.
11. Singh S, Numan A, Sharma D, Shukla R, Alexander A, Jain GK, Ahmad FJ, Keshar¬wani P (2022) Ep¬idemiology, virology and clinical as¬pects of hantavirus infections: an over¬view. Int J Environ Health Res. 32: 1815–1826.
12. Hamdan NES, Ng YL, Lee WB, Tan CS, Khan FAA, Chong YL (2017) Rodent species distribution and hantavirus sero-prevalence in residential and forested areas of Sarawak, Malaysia. Trop Life Sci Res. 28: 151.
13. Filippone C, Castel G, Murri S, Beaulieux F, Ermonval M, Jallet C, Wise EL, Ellis RJ, Marston DA, McElhinney LM (2016) Discovery of hantavirus circulating among Rattus rattus in French Mayotte island, Indian Ocean. J Gen Virol. 97: 1060–1065
14. Cosseddu GM, Sozio G, Valleriani F, Di Gennaro A, Pascucci I, Gavaudan S, Ma¬rianneau P, Monaco F (2017) Serologi¬cal survey of hanta¬virus and flavivirus among wild rodents in central Italy. Vec¬tor Borne Zoonotic Dis. 17: 777–779.
15. Lohmus M, Verner-Carlsson J, Borg O, Albihn A, Lundkvist A (2016) Hanta-virus in new geographic regions, Swe-den. Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 6: 31465.
16. Wang B, Cai CL, Li B, Zhang W, Zhu Y, Chen WH, Zhuo F, Shi ZL, Yang XL (2017) Detection and characterization of three zoonotic virus¬es in wild rodents and shrews from Shenzhen City, China. Virol Sin. 32: 290–297.
17. Klein TA, Kim HC, Chong ST, Kim JA, Lee SY, Kim WK, Nunn PV, Song JW (2015) Hantaan virus surveillance target-ing small mam¬mals at nightmare range, Re¬public of Korea. PLoS One. 10: e0118483.
18. Drewes S, Jeske K, Strakova P, Balciaus-kas L, Ryll R, Balciauskiene L, Kohl-hause D, Schnidrig GA, Hiltbrunner M, Špakova A (2021) Identification of a novel hanta¬virus strain in the root vole (Microtus oeconomus) in Lithuania. In-fect Genet Evol. 90: 104520.
19. Jeske K, Jacob J, Drewes S, Pfeffer M, Heckel G, Ulrich RG, Imholt C (2021) Han¬tavirus–Leptospira coinfections in small mammals from central Germany. Epi¬demiol Infect. 149: e97.
20. Vaheri A, Henttonen H, Voutilainen L, Mustonen J, Sironen T, Vapalahti O (2013) Hantavirus infections in Europe and their impact on public health. Rev Med Virol. 23: 35–49.
21. Chau R, Bhatt N, Manhica I, Candido S, de Deus N, Guiliche O, Tivane A, Evaristo LV, Guterres A, Monteiro V (2017) First serological evidence of hantavirus among febrile patients in Mozambique. Int J In¬fect Dis. 61: 51–55.
22. Chinikar S, Javadi AA, Hajiannia A, Ataei B, Jalali T, Khakifirouz S, Nowotny N, Schmidt-Chanasit J, Shahhosseini N (2014) First evidence of hantavirus in central Iran as an emerging viral dis¬ease. Adv Infect Dis. 4: 173–177.
23. Salehi-Vaziri M, Kaleji AS, Fazlalipour M, Jalali T, Mohammadi T, Khakifirouz S, Baniasadi V, Pouriayevali MH, Mahmoudi A, Tordo N (2019) Hantavirus infection in Iranian patients suspected to viral hem¬orrhagic fever. J Med Virol. 91: 1737–1742.
24. Salehi-Vaziri M, Sarvari J, Man¬surnejadan M, Shiri A, Joharinia N, Khoshbakht R, Jaberi O, Pouriayevali MH, Azad-Man-jiri S, Jalali T (2021) Evidence of hanta-virus circulation among municipal street sweepers, southwest of Iran. Vi¬rusdis-ease. 32: 251–254.
25. Klempa B, Fichet-Calvet E, Lecompte E, Auste B, Aniskin V, Meisel H, Denys C, Koivogui L, Ter Meulen J, Krüger DH (2006) Hantavirus in African wood mouse, Guinea. Emerg Infect Dis. 12: 838.
26. Mahmoudi A, Mostafavi E, Mohammadi A, Jalali T, Denys C, Nicolas V, Hugot JP, Lalis A, Salehi-Vaziri M (2023) The first identification of Tula orthohanta-virus in forest dormice from Iran. Mam-malia. 87: 405–412.
27. Azimi T, Nasrollahian S, Sabour S, Hadi N, Azimi L, Rahbarian N, Karimi A, Fallah F, Mansour-Ghanaie R, Hoseini-Alfat¬emi SM (2023) The first evidence of Seoul hantavirus, hepatitis E virus and rabies virus in Rat¬tus norvegicus in Tehran, Iran. Future Virol. 18: 691–697.
28. Tian H, Stenseth NC (2019) The ecologi-cal dynamics of hantavirus diseases. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 13: e0006901.
29. Khalil H, Hornfeldt B, Evander M, Mag-nusson M, Olsson G, Ecke F (2014) Dy-namics and drivers of hantavirus preva-lence in rodent populations. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 14: 537–551.
30. Sun XK, Shi YL, Huang P, Deng YL, Wu D, Liang L, Lin J (2014) Rats harboring Seoul hantavirus in Qingyuan, southern China, 2011–2013. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 45(5): 1058–1064.
31. Karami M, Hutterer R, Benda P, Siah-sarvie R, Krystufek B (2008) Annotated check-list of the mammals of Iran. Lynx (Praha). 39.
32. Darvish J, Mohammadi Z, Mahmoudi A, Siahsarvie R (2014) Faunistic and taxo-nomic study of rodents from northwest-ern Iran. Iran J Anim Biosyst. 10: 119–136.
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How to Cite
1.
Sarvari J, Sarkari B, Osooreh F, Fazlalipour M, Pouriayevali MH, Jalali T, Ranjbar MJ, Salehi-Vaziri M. Molecular and Serological Evaluation of Hantavirus in Wild Rodents in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Southwest of Iran. J Arthropod Borne Dis. 2025;.
