New Hosts of The Lassa Virus.

[en] Lassa virus (LASV) causes a deadly haemorrhagic fever in humans, killing several thousand people in West Africa annually. For 40 years, the Natal multimammate rat, Mastomys natalensis, has been assumed to be the sole host of LASV. We found evidence that LASV is also hosted by other rodent species: the African wood mouse Hylomyscus pamfi in Nigeria, and the Guinea multimammate mouse Mastomys erythroleucus in both Nigeria and Guinea. Virus strains from these animals were isolated in the BSL-4 laboratory and fully sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses of viral genes coding for glycoprotein, nucleoprotein, polymerase and matrix protein show that Lassa strains detected in M. erythroleucus belong to lineages III and IV. The strain from H. pamfi clusters close to lineage I (for S gene) and between II &III (for L gene). Discovery of new rodent hosts has implications for LASV evolution and its spread into new areas within West Africa.

Disciplines :

Immunology & infectious disease

Author, co-author :

Olayemi, Ayodeji

Cadar, Daniel

Magassouba, N. Faly

Obadare, Adeoba

Kourouma, Fode

Oyeyiola, Akinlabi

Fasogbon, Samuel

Igbokwe, Joseph

Rieger, Toni

Bockholt, Sabrina

More authors (10 more)

Language :

English

Title :

New Hosts of The Lassa Virus.

Publication date :

2016

Journal title :

Scientific Reports

eISSN :

2045-2322

Publisher :

Nature Publishing Group, London, United Kingdom

Volume :

Pages :

25280

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 22 June 2016

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Scopus citations^®

135

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

106

OpenCitations

100

OpenAlex citations

154

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