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  • Fat Dormouse (Myoxus glis) as a natural host of medical important microorganisms
    Prosenc, Katarina ...
    Zoones are any infection transmitted to humans from infected animals, whether this is direct or indirect contact. The epidemiology of zoonoses depends on frequency and the nature of contact between ... the vertebrate and the human hosts. For better understanding of zoonozes, knowledege of their circulation in the natural environment is very important. Therefor, our study included fat dormouse (Myoxus glis) as a potential host reservoir of medically important micro-organisms in Slovenia. Two zoonoses were examined; Homorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) caused by viruses in the genus Hantavirus of the family Bunyaviridae and rickettsiosis which causative agents are bacteria in the order Rickettsiales. Hantaviruses are maintained in nature primarily in rodents and insectivores. They cause chronic, apparently asymptomatic infections among their reservoir hosts. Infection in man is a direct result of an exposure to infected rodents or insectivores or their infected excreta. Rickettsia are small bacteria, an obligate intracellular parasites, which are transmitted to humans by arthropods from a vertebrate reservoir. Results of previous epidemiological and serological studies of HFRS in Slovenia indicated simultaneous circulation of different hantaviruses among various genera of rodents. Our results also revealed a natural cycle involving Rickettsia typhi infection of Monopsyllus sciurorum sciurorum fleas from the nests of the fat dormouse. The elucidate the variability of hantaviruses spreading by their natural hosts and to prove the new natural cycle of R. typhi, fat dormice were collected during three seasons in different locations in Slovenia (Godovič, Metlika, Snežnik). Indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and enzyme immunoassay (EIA) were used as a serological methods for detection of specific hantaviral and rickettsial antibodies in dormice sera. Recent advances in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology that allow detection of viral RNA or bacterial DNA in tissue samples was applied to study naturally infected animals. For hantaviruses typing strategy restriction endonucleases digestion was used. While using serological and molecular methods an overall prevalence of hantavirus infection among Myoxus glis in Slovenia was 13,3%. Out of 98 examined samples, five had specific hantaviral antibodies and viral RNA was detected in ten animal kidney tissues. Then PCR products of hantaviral positive animals were digested with 5 restriction enzymes the cleavage patterns revealed that the fat dormouse in Slovenia is a reservoir of Hantaan virus. Both, serological and molecular methods used in the study to detect specific antibodies to R. typhi and/or to demonstrate rickettsial DNA in animal tissue samples, failed to prove that Myoxus glis serve as a reservoir in natural cycle of R. typhi. Therefor we conclude, that there is a considerable evidence that fat dormouse Myoxus glis is a reservoir of hantavirus Hantaan in Slovenia. Since Hantaan virus is a causative agent of a very serve form of HFRS, with 5-10% fatality, it is important to be aware of this infection while hunting dormice.
    Vir: Book of Abstracts : III International Conference on Dormice (Rodentia, Gliridae) : Mošćenička Draga 9.-12. October, 1996 (Str. 37)
    Vrsta gradiva - prispevek na konferenci
    Leto - 1996
    Jezik - angleški
    COBISS.SI-ID - 17227269

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