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Volume 18, Number 12—December 2012
Dispatch

High Diversity of RNA Viruses in Rodents, Ethiopia

Yonas Meheretu1, Dagmar Čížková1, Jana Těšíková, Kiros Welegerima, Zewdneh Tomas, Dawit Kidane, Kokob Girmay, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, Josef Bryja, Stephan Günther, Anna Bryjová, Herwig Leirs, and Joëlle Goüy de BellocqComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Author affiliations: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Brno, Czech Republic (Y. Meheretu, D. Čížková, J. Těšíková, J. Bryja, A. Bryjová, J. Goüy de Bellocq); Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia (Y. Meheretu, K. Welegerima, Z. Tomas, D. Kidane, K. Girmay); University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium (Y. Meheretu, H. Leirs, J. Goüy de Bellocq); Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany (J. Schmidt-Chanasit, S. Günther)

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Table

Small mammal species screened for arenaviruses and hantaviruses, Ethiopian Highlands, August–December 2010*

Species No. animals by locality and elevation
 Total no. animals
Aroresha, 1,600 m Golgolnaele, 2,700 m Mahbere Silassie, 2,600 m
Ethiopian white-footed mouse (Stenocephalemys albipes) 0 33 23 56
Awash multimammate mouse (Mastomys awashensis) 16 1 1 18
Mus (Nannomys) sp. mice 11 20 2 33
Black rat (Rattus rattus) 37 2 5 44
African giant shrew (Crocidura olivieri) 6 2 17 25
Dembea grass rat (Arvicanthis dembeensis) 8 13 4 25
Total 78 71 52 201

*Species identification was confirmed by sequencing the partial mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (11). Representative sequences are available in GenBank (accession nos. JQ956464-JQ956479). Voucher specimens from representative rodents have been deposited at the Evolutionary Ecology group, University of Antwerp, and are available from the authors on request.

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1These authors contributed equally to this article.

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