Evidence for Novel Hepaciviruses in Rodents

Drexler, Jan Felix; Corman, Victor Max; Müller, Marcel Alexander; Lukashev, Alexander N.; Gmyl, Anatoly; Coutard, Bruno; Adam, Alexander; Ritz, Daniel; Leijten, Lonneke M.; van Riel, Debby; Kallies, Rene; Klose, Stefan M.; Gloza-Rausch, Florian; Binger, Tabea; Annan, Augustina; Adu-Sarkodie, Yaw; Oppong, Samuel; Bourgarel, Mathieu; Rupp, Daniel; Hoffmann, Bernd; Schlegel, Mathias; Kümmerer, Beate M.; Krüger, Detlev H.; Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas; Setién, Alvaro Aguilar; Cottontail, Veronika M.; Hemachudha, Thiravat; Wacharapluesadee, Supaporn; Osterrieder, Klaus; Bartenschlager, Ralf; Matthee, Sonja; Beer, Martin; Kuiken, Thijs; Reusken, Chantal; Leroy, Eric M.; Ulrich, Rainer G.; Drosten, Christian

Tested rodent specimens originated from Thailand, Gabon, South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico (Supplementary Table 1 ). HCV-related sequences from the NS3 gene were detected in 37 out of 4,770 specimens (0.8%). Ten of these findings were from South African four-striped grass mice (Rhabdomys pumilio; 10 of 518 individual animals, 1.9%). For these and all other positive specimens, a 978 nucleotide NS3 fragment was generated using additional primer pairs (Supplementary Table 2 ). The derived sequences pertained to one clade, and were different from each other by 21.1% on nucleotide, or 3.4% on translated amino acid level. Twenty-seven (1.8%) of 1,465 individual bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from Germany and The Netherlands yielded HCV-related NS3 sequences. The derived sequences fell into two separate clades. Clade 1 contained 23 sequences different from each other by up to 15.8% of nucleotides and 2.8% of translated amino acids. Clade 2 contained four sequences different by 1.6% nucleotides and 0.6% translated amino acids.