Ljungan virus detected in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) from Northern Italy

J Wildl Dis. 2010 Jan;46(1):262-6. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-46.1.262.

Abstract

Identified in 1998, Ljungan virus (LV; Picornaviridae) causes type 1 diabetes-like symptoms and myocarditis in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from Sweden and Denmark, and may be a zoonotic agent of several important diseases (e.g., intrauterine fetal death, type 1 diabetes, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and myocarditis). Using a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay and sequence analysis, we detected LV in bank voles, and for the first time, in yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) collected during 2006 from a site in northern Italy. The global distribution of LV and its role as a mammalian pathogen deserve further attention.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Wild / virology
  • Arvicolinae / virology*
  • Disease Reservoirs / veterinary*
  • Disease Reservoirs / virology
  • Female
  • Italy / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Murinae / virology*
  • Parechovirus / isolation & purification*
  • Picornaviridae Infections / epidemiology
  • Picornaviridae Infections / veterinary*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / veterinary
  • Species Specificity