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Article: Hantavirus in northern short-tailed shrew, United States.(DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
- Article from:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Article date:
- September 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Phylogenetic analyses, based on partial medium- and large-segment sequences, support an ancient evolutionary origin of a genetically distinct hantavirus detected by reverse transcription--PCR in tissues of northern short-tailed shrews (Blarina brevicauda) captured in Minnesota in August 1998. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of hantaviruses harbored by shrews in the Americas.
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Rodents and their ectoparasites serve as reservoirs and vectors of myriad viruses and other pathogenic microbes. In contrast, the role of insectivores (or soricomorphs) in the transmission and ecology of zoonoses is largely unknown. Because some soricomorphs ...