Publication details
Tigray virus - hantavirus from the Ethiopian white-footed mouse (Stenocephalemys albipes)
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | Hantaviruses are RNA viruses belonging to the family Bunyaviridae. Their natural hosts are rodents, bats and soricomorphs. Some of these viruses are important human pathogens that may cause serious health problems. Scientific interest in these viruses is therefore crucial, especially in developing countries. In our previous study Tigray virus (TIGV) was discovered in tissues of the Ethiopian white-footed mouse (Stenocephalemys albipes) as the first hantavirus record in East Africa (Meheretu et al. 2012). We used high throughput sequencing to characterise the complete genome of Tigray virus which showed a typical hantavirus organisation. Nucleotide-based phylogenetic analysis revealed that all three coding segments cluster in the phylogroup III sensu Guo et al. (2013) but with an inconsistent segmental clustering in the hantavirus phylogenetic tree. We then started to investigate the phylogeography of Tigray in Ethiopia. The preliminary dataset based on a short portion of the L segment shows that the phylogeography of Tigray corresponds to that of its host. The next step of our study will be to investigate if the two other viral genomic segments confirm the preliminary phylogeographic pattern of Tigray in Ethiopia. |