Ljungan virus detected in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) from Northern Italy

Abstract

Identified in 1998, Ljungan virus (LV; Picornaviridae) causes type 1 diabetes-like symptoms and myocarditis in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from Sweden and Denmark, and may be a zoonotic agent of several important diseases (e.g., intrauterine fetal death, type 1 diabetes, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and myocarditis). Using a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay and sequence analysis, we detected LV in bank voles, and for the first time, in yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) collected during 2006 from a site in northern Italy. The global distribution of LV and its role as a mammalian pathogen deserve further attention.