Molecular and Serological study of Hantavirus among Rodents in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province, Southwest of Iran

Introduction and Objectives: Hantaviruses are a group of zoonotic pathogens that are maintained in nature by rodents. The main route of transmission is the contaminated aerosol spread from asymptomatic rodent reservoirs. The situation of virus circulation among rodents remained to be determined in our country. This study was designed to evaluate the serological and molecular prevalence of Hantaviruses among rodents in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province, southwest of Iran. Materials and Methods: Serum samples, as well as lung tissue from 61 captured rodents, were obtained. Total RNA was extracted from lung tissue by using the RNeasy Mini Kit (QIAGEN) and subjected to a pan-hantavirus nested RT-PCR employing universal primers against a large segment of Virology viral genome. Moreover, a commercial ELISA kit containing pools of Eurasia and America antigens was employed to determine the presence of IgG antibodies in sera. Results: 48% of animals were female and the rest were male. Meriones Persicus was the most prevalent genus (50%). The RT-PCR showed that all lung samples were negative for Hantavirus RNA. Similarly, the results of the ELISA test showed that all investigated sera were negative for IgG against Eurasia and America Hantaviruses. Conclusion: According to the results, none of the lung tissues or sera was positive for Hantavirus genome and IgG. Therefore, the prevalence of hantavirus in rodents of this area is too low to be detected by this sample size. More investigation for clarifying the finding is recommended.