Abstract
Tula hantavirus (TULV) is a member of the genus Hantavirus, family Bunyaviridae and is mainly carried by the European common vole (Microtus arvalis). In order to detect TULV, we tested Microtus arvalis (MAR) and Microtus subterraneus (MSU) voles captured in two different locations of the Southern Transdanubian region of Hungary. The viral genome was detectable in 37% of the tested MAR voles but, interestingly, was absent in all MSU. Phylogenetic analysis performed with a partial coding sequence of the capsid gene showed that Hungarian TULV strains clustered with viruses detected in western Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the identification of TULV detected in MAR voles in the Transdanubian region of Hungary.
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Acknowledgments
This study would not have been possible without the staff of the Regional Laboratory of Virology, County Institute of State Public Health Service; we are deeply indebted to them. We also would like to especially thank Kaposi Tamásné (National Center for Epidemiology, Department of Viral Diagnostics, Reference Laboratory of Viral Zoonozes, Budapest, Hungary) for her help in the rodent dissection. We thank Csaba Fekete and Tibor Pál for comments and assistance in editing of the manuscript.
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Jakab, F., Horváth, G., Ferenczi, E. et al. First detection of Tula hantaviruses in Microtus arvalis voles in Hungary. Arch Virol 153, 2093–2096 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-008-0216-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-008-0216-5