Novel Bat-borne Hantavirus, Vietnam

To the Editor: Compelling evidence of genetically distinct hantaviruses (family Bunyaviridae) in multiple species of shrews and moles (order Soricomorpha, families Soricidae and Talpidae) across 4 continents (1-7) suggests that soricomorphs, rather than rodents (order Rodentia, families Muridae and Cricetidae), might be the primordial hosts (6,7).Recently, the host range of hantaviruses has been further expanded by the discovery that insectivorous bats (order Chiroptera) also serve as reservoirs (8,9).Conjecturing that Mouyassué virus in the banana pipistrelle (Neoromicia nanus) in Côte d'Ivoire (8) and Magboi virus (MGBV) in the hairy split-faced bat (Nycteris hispida) in Sierra Leone (9) represent a much broader geographic distribution of bat-borne hantaviruses, we analyzed tissues from bats captured in Mongolia and Vietnam.Total RNA was extracted from 51 lung tissues, collected in RNAlater Stabilization Reagent (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA, USA), from insectivorous bats, representing 7 genera and 12 species, captured in Mongolia and Vietnam.cDNA was then prepared by using PrimeScript II 1st strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Takara Bio, Otsu, Shiga, Japan) for reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), and using oligonucleotide primers previously designed for amplification of soricid-and talpidborne hantaviruses (1-7).A novel hantavirus, designated Xuan Son virus (XSV), was detected in 1 of 5 Pomona roundleaf bats (Hipposideros pomona) by using a heminested large (L)-segment primer set (outer: HNL-2111F, 5′-CARTCWAC-WGTIGGIGCIAGTGG-3′, and HAN-L-R1, 5′-AACCADTCWGTYCCRT-CATC-3′; inner: HNL-2111F and HAN-L-R2, 5′-GCRTCRTCWGART-GRTGDGCAA-3′) and a nested small