Short Report: Maripa Hantavirus in French Guiana: Phylogenetic Position and Predicted Spatial Distribution of Rodent Hosts

Benoît de Thoisy (1) , Séverine Matheus (1, 2) , François Catzeflis (3) , Luc Clément (4) , Sébastien Barrioz (4) , Amandine Guidez (1) , Damien Donato (1) , Jean-François Cornu (5) , Olivier Brunaux (6) , Stéphane Guitet (6) , Vincent Lacoste (1) , Anne Lavergne (1)

1 Laboratoire des Interactions Virus-Hôtes [Cayenne, Guyane Française]
2 CNR - laboratoire associé - Centre National de Référence pour les Arbovirus - Laboratoire de Virologie [Cayenne, Guyane française]
3 UMR CNRS 5554 - Laboratoire de Paléontologie-Paléobiologie-Phylogénie
4 Association Kwata - Etude et protection de la nature [Guyane]
5 BOREA - Biologie des Organismes et Ecosystèmes Aquatiques
6 ONF - Direction régionale de la Guyane [Cayenne]

A molecular screening of wild-caught rodents was conducted in French Guiana, South America to identify hosts of the hantavirus Maripa described in 2008 in a hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) case. Over a 9-year period, 418 echimyids and murids were captured. Viral RNA was detected in two sigmodontine rodents, Oligoryzomys fulvescens and Zygodontomys brevicauda, trapped close to the house of a second HPS case that occurred in 2009 and an O. fulvescens close to the fourth HPS case identified in 2013. Sequences from the rodents had 96% and 97% nucleotide identity (fragment of S and M segments, respectively) with the sequence of the first human HPS case. Phylogenetic reconstruc-tions based on the complete sequence of the S segment show that Maripa virus is closely related to Rio Mamore hantavirus. Using environmental descriptors of trapping sites, including vegetation, landscape units, rain, and human disturbance, a maximal entropy-based species distribution model allowed for identification of areas of higher predicted occurrence of the two rodents, where emergence risks of Maripa virus are expected to be higher. Hantaviruses (Bunyaviridae) are distributed worldwide.

Domaines: Virologie; Santé publique et épidémiologie

Benoît de Thoisy, Séverine Matheus, François Catzeflis, Luc Clément, Sébastien Barrioz, et al.. Short Report: Maripa Hantavirus in French Guiana: Phylogenetic Position and Predicted Spatial Distribution of Rodent Hosts. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2014, 90 (6), pp.988 - 992. ⟨10.4269/ajtmh.13-0257⟩. ⟨pasteur-01082199⟩