Ka. Burek et al., SEROLOGIC AND VIROLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF A PROSPECT HILL-LIKE HANTAVIRUSIN WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA, The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 51(3), 1994, pp. 286-294
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Tropical Medicine
The purposes of this study were to determine if hantaviruses were pres
ent in the Great Lakes port areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota and if so
, to identify which virus and which rodent host species were involved.
Rodents were trapped in Duluth, Minnesota, Superior, Green Bay, and M
ilwaukee, Wisconsin, all ports of call for international maritime ship
ping. A total of 675 wild rodents were captured and tested, including
310 meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), 173 Norway rats (Rattus no
rvegicus), 179 Peromyscus spp., (including white footed mice [P. leuco
pus] and deer mice [P. maniculatus gracilis and P. maniculatus bairdii
]), and 13 house mice (Mus musculus). Twenty percent of the rats, 17%
of the meadow voles, 8% of the house mice, and 3% of the Peromyscus sp
p. had antibody to a hantavirus by immunofluorescent antibody assay (I
FA). By the plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT), nine of 36 me
adow voles, one of 4 P. leucopus, and one of 34 rats had hantavirus an
tibody, with the highest titers to Prospect Hill (PH) virus. All of th
e PRNT-seropositive individuals were from the twin cities of Superior
and Duluth. Hantavirus antigen was detected in lung tissue by IFA in M
. pennsylvanicus and Peromyscus spp., but not in rats. Two hantaviruse
s, designated SD-1 and SD-2, were isolated from M. pennsylvanicus capt
ured in Duluth and found to be very similar to prototype PH virus by c
ross-IFA and cross-PRNT Virus isolation attempts were unsuccessful fro
m tissues of the Peromyscus spp. and the rats.