A new Puumala hantavirus subtype in rodents associated with an outbreak of Nephropathia epidemica in South-East Germany in 2004

A micro-epidemic of hantavirus infections occurred in Lower Bavaria, South-East Germany, starting in April 2004. While only three cases were registered from 2001 to 2003, a dramatically increased number of clinically apparent human hantavirus infections (n=38) was observed in 2004, plus seven additi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Epidemiology and infection 2006-12, Vol.134 (6), p.1333-1344
Main Authors: ESSBAUER, S., SCHMIDT, J., CONRATHS, F. J., FRIEDRICH, R., KOCH, J., HAUTMANN, W., PFEFFER, M., WÖLFEL, R., FINKE, J., DOBLER, G., ULRICH, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Disease Outbreaks
Disease Reservoirs
Epidemics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic Variation
Germany - epidemiology
Hantavirus
Hantavirus - classification
Hantavirus - genetics
Hantavirus - immunology
Hantavirus infections
Hantavirus Infections - epidemiology
Hantavirus Infections - virology
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - epidemiology
Human genetics
Humans
Infections
Infectious diseases
Medical genetics
Microbiology
Miscellaneous
Nucleocapsid Proteins - analysis
Puumala virus
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
Rodents
Serology
Virology
Viruses
Voles
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Summary:A micro-epidemic of hantavirus infections occurred in Lower Bavaria, South-East Germany, starting in April 2004. While only three cases were registered from 2001 to 2003, a dramatically increased number of clinically apparent human hantavirus infections (n=38) was observed in 2004, plus seven additional cases by June 2005. To determine the reservoir responsible for the infections, a total of 43 rodents were trapped in Lower Bavaria. Serological and genetic investigations revealed that Puumala virus (PUUV) is dominant in the local population of bank voles. Partial PUUV S segment nucleotide sequences originating from bank voles at four different trapping sites in Lower Bavaria showed a low divergence (up to 3·1%). This is contrasted by a nucleotide sequence divergence of 14–16% to PUUV strains detected in Belgium, France, Slovakia or North-Western Germany. PUUV sequences from bank voles in Lower Bavaria represent a new PUUV subtype which seems to be responsible for the observed increase of human hantavirus infections in 2004–2005.
ISSN:0950-2688
1469-4409
DOI:10.1017/S0950268806006170