TY - JOUR AU - Delfraro, Adriana AU - Clara, Mario AU - Tomé, Lorena AU - Achaval, Federico AU - Levis, Silvana AU - Calderón, Gladys AU - Enria, Delia AU - Lozano, Mario AU - Russi, José AU - Arbiza, Juan T1 - Yellow Pygmy Rice Rat (Oligoryzomys flavescens) and Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in Uruguay T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2003 VL - 9 IS - 7 SP - 846 SN - 1080-6059 AB - During 5,230 trapping nights, 672 small mammals were trapped in the areas where most hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases occur in Uruguay. Yellow pygmy rice rats (Oligoryzomys flavescens) were the only rodents that showed evidence of antibodies to hantavirus, with a seroprevalence of 2.6%. The rodents were trapped in all the explored environments, and most of the seropositive rodents were found in habitats frequented by humans. Nucleotide sequences were obtained from four HPS case-patients and four yellow pygmy rice rats of the M genome segment. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that rodent-borne viruses and viruses from three HPS case-patients form a well-supported clade and share a 96.4% identity with the previously characterized Central Plata hantavirus. These results suggest that yellow pygmy rice rat (O. flavescens) may be the host for Central Plata, a hantavirus associated with HPS in the southern area of Uruguay.[ KW - hantavirus KW - reservoir host KW - Oligoryzomys flavescens KW - Uruguay KW - research DO - 10.3201/eid0907.030044 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/7/03-0044_article ER - End of Reference