Molecular Epidemiology Investigation On The Rodent-borne Hantaviruses Isolated From The Port Cities Of Heilongjiang, China, In 2014

Hantavirus (HV) is a tripartite negative-sense RNA virus. It can infect humans through contaminated rodent excreta and causes two types of fatal human diseases:hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). China exhibits the highest HFRS occurrence rate in the world, and the Heilongjiang area is one of the most severely infected regions.The important foundation for effective prevent disease is conduct disease surveillance and epidemiological studies, Heilongjiang province borders Russia, Mongolia and other nations, which is an important area for prevent and control the spread of animal epidemics multinational. The personnel and goods exchange frequently increase the risk of spreading animal diseases. Thus, it is important to carry out the disease surveillance and epidemiological studies. This investigation focus on the epidemic situation of HV carried on rodent hosts in the port cities of Heilongjiang province,2014. We have isolated HV from rodents and set up a molecular epidemiology study.To obtain additional insights into the genetic characteristics of hantaviruses in the port cities of the Heilongjiang. area in China, a molecular epidemiological investigation of hantaviruses isolated from rodents was performed in 2014. A total of 649 rodents (11 murine species and 1 shrew species) were caught in 12 port cities in Heilongjiang. Among these rodents, the most common species was A. agrarius, and the second-most common was R. norvegicus. A viral gene PCR assay revealed the presence of two specific genotypes of hantavirus, referred to as Hantaan virus (HTNV), and Seoul virus (SEOV). A. agrarius infection rate is 4.9%(14/282) and R.-norvegicus infection rate is 8.3%(15/180).The positive SEOV infection rate was higher than that for HTNV. A genetic analysis based on partial M segment sequences indicated that all of the isolates belonging to SEOV could be assigned to two genetic lineages, whereas the isolate belonging to HTNV could be assigned to only one genetic lineage. To acquire more insights into the prevalence of Hantavirus in Heilongjiang frontier area, regular surveillance were carried out and the genomic characteristic of the circulating virus was analyzed. We have obtained one HTNV isolate (TJ) derived from R. norvegicus, and one SEOV isolate (DN2). All of the N-glycosylation sites of TJ strain were conserved among these different HTNVs. Phylogenetic analysis of the S, M and L segment sequences indicated that the DN2 strain was closely related to Seoul virus (SEOV), with nucleotide identity of 96.5% for the S segment, 98.3% for the M segment,.96.0% for the L segment. The amino acid identity is 93.3% for the S segment,95,2% for the M segment,99.1% for the L segment.These results suggested that HTNV and SEOV are circulating in A. agrarius and R. norvegicus in the port cities in the area of Heilongjiang, but SEOV may be the dominant common hantavirus.