Seewis virus: phylogeography of a shrew-borne hantavirus in Siberia, Russia.

Background: Hantaviral antigens were originally reported more than 20 years ago in tissues of the Eurasian common shrew (Sorex araneus), captured in European and Siberian Russia. The recent discovery of Seewis virus (SWSV) in this soricid species in Switzerland provided an opportunity to investigate its genetic diversity and geographic distribution in Russia.

Methods: Lung tissues from 45 Eurasian common shrews, 4 Laxmann's shrews (Sorex caecutiens), 3 Siberian large-toothed shrews (Sorex daphaenodon), 9 pygmy shrews (Sorex minutus), 28 tundra shrews (Sorex tundrensis), and 6 Siberian shrews (Crocidura sibirica), captured in 11 localities in Western and Eastern Siberia during June 2007 to September 2008, were analyzed for hantavirus RNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

[Comparative analysis of variable regions in the genomes of variola virus].

Nucleotide sequences of two extended segments of the terminal variable regions in variola virus genome were determined. The size of the left segment was 13.5 kbp and of the right, 10.

[Restriction endonuclease Asi256I recognizing the nucleotide sequence 5'-GATC-3'].

A strain producing a restriction endonuclease was isolated from soil samples and identified as the Arthrobacter sp. strain Ck256. The enzyme produced by this strain was termed Asi2561.

[Genomic S segment of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus circulating in Russia and Bulgaria].

S-segment nucleotide sequences for two Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus strains isolated in the Rostov Region of Russia and in Bulgaria have been determined. Analysis of complete S-segment nucleotide sequences in the viral strains from different regions of the world has established that the CCHF virus strains isolated from ticks and human beings in different southern Russian regions in 1967 and 2000 are very closely genetically and they form an individual subgroup in the basic European genetic group. By the S-segment structure, the CCHF virus strain isolated in Bulgaria in 1978 belongs to the same genetic group as a representative of its second subgroup.

[Genetic monitoring of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan in 2001-2003].

Blood specimens obtained from 32 CCHF patients were tested for the presence of CCHF virus markers. In addition, 3210 ticks of the genera Hyalomma asiaticum, Hyalomma anatolicum, and Dermacentor niveus were examined to identify the CCHF virus antigen and RNA. This material was obtained during the 2001-2003 local outbreaks of CCHF in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.