Isolation and characterization of hantaviruses in Far East Russia and etiology of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in the region

Abstract

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a serious public health issue in Far East Russia. Two different hantaviruses were isolated from rodents captured in the Khabarovsk region: Amur virus (AMRV; Khekhtsir/AP209/2005 strain from Apodemus peninsulae) and Hantaan virus (HTNV; Galkino/AA57/2002 strain from A. agrarius). Genetic analysis of the new isolates revealed that the M and L segments were apparently different between AMRV and HTNV, but S segments of the two viruses were closer. The antigenicities of AMRV, HTNV, and Seoul virus (SEOV) were differentiated by cross-neutralization. Serological differential diagnoses of 67 HFRS patients in the Prymorsky and Khabarovsk regions of Far East Russia were conducted using a neutralization test. The results revealed that the major cause of HFRS varied with location in Far East Russia: SEOV for Vladivostok city in the Prymorsky region, AMRV in rural areas of the Primorsky region, and probably HTNV for the Khabarovsk region.

Figure 1.

Geographical locations of epizootiological survey sites in Far East Russia. Rodents were captured in the Khabarovsk region. Sera of HFRS patients were collected in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk regions.

Figure 2.

Phylogenetic consensus trees of hantaviruses based on nucleotide sequences covering the entire ORF of the S, M, and L segments. The trees were generated using MCMCMC analyses. The reliability of the tree was evaluated by the posterior probability value derived from MrBayes. The scale bar indicates 0.1 nucleotide substitutions per site.