Natural rodent host associations of Guanarito and Pirital viruses (family Arenaviridae) in central Venezuela

The objective of this study was to elucidate the natural rodent host relati onships of Guanarito and Pirital viruses (family Arenaviridae) in the plain s of central Venezuela, Ninety-two arenavirus isolates from 607 animals, re presenting 10 different rodent species, were characterized to the level of serotype, The 92 isolates comprised 19 Guanarito virus strains and 73 Pirit al virus strains. The 19 Guanarito virus isolates were from Zygodontomys br evicauda; 72 (98.6%) of the 73 Pirital virus isolates were from Sigmodon al stoni. These results indicate that the natural rodent associations of these 2 sympatric arenaviruses are highly specific and that Z. brevicauda and S, alstoni are the principal rodent hosts of Guanarito and Pirital viruses, r espectively.