Detecting several families of human viruses originating from wild rat populations at the Thach That, Hanoi, 2020 - 2021

Abstract

Rodents are considered natural reservoirs of several viral families that cause human diseases, which is become a concern for the health care system. The study was carried out to detect the genetic material of these virus families in rodent population at Thach That district, Hanoi. In this study, by cage trap, 105 rats were collected at Thach That district, Hanoi, Vietnam. With the method of morphological classification, the results illustrate that there are 3 rodent species in sampling field, in which Rattus norvegicus dominated (84 individuals - account for 80%), followed by Rattus tanezumi (16 individuals -15%) and Suncus murinus (5 individuals -5%). Rats were mainly captured in the market acounting for 81% of the total number of sampling rats. Among screening of 210 oral swab and rectal swab samples by PCR reaction, 9% in which were positive for the studied virus. The presence of the virus was recorded in both sampling sites. All four studied virus families (i.e. Coronaviridae, Paramyxoviridae, Filoviridae and Influenza A virus) were found in black rat (Rattus norvegicus). Therefore, further molecular biology studies in mouse samples with positive test results by PCR to determine the virus strain is needed.