Detection and Characterization of Homologues of Human Hepatitis Viruses and Pegiviruses in Rodents and Bats in Vietnam

Van Nguyen, Dung; Van Nguyen, Cuong; Bonsall, David; Ngo, Tue Tri; Carrique-Mas, Juan; Pham, Anh Hong; Bryant, Juliet E.; Thwaites, Guy; Baker, Stephen; Woolhouse, Mark; Simmonds, Peter

The high prevalence of hepacivirus in bamboo rats also indicates the need to reconsider transmission routes of hepaciviruses. Among hepaciviruses, the transmission route of HCV has been relatively well studied, while those of other hepaciviruses are mostly speculative [38, 39] . As a bloodborne virus, HCV is thought to be mainly transmitted through injections or blood transfusion. However, this does not explain how a range of divergent HCV strains have been maintained for centuries in some rural populations in central Africa and southeast Asia [40] . Equine hepacivirus has been shown to be transmittable via direct inoculation [41] and via vertical transmission [42] . Rodent hepacivirus may utilize a similar transmission route as experimental intravenous injection of the supernatants of homogenised liver tissues from infected rats lead to viraemia [43] . The high prevalence of hepacivirus in bamboo rats (in this study) and commensal Rattus norvegicus (23.3% in Firth et al. 2014 [18] ) indicates other more efficient transmission routes may exist such as via saliva