Studies on Arenaviruses in Brazil

Abstract

Two members of the Arenavirus group occur enzooticaUy among cricetine rodents which inhabit forested areas of the Amazon region of Brazil. The first, Amapari t-'Írus, produces chronic viremic infection in Oryzomys capito ssp. and in Neacomys guianae and it has been found only in the Serra do Navio region, Amapá Territory. No neutralizing antibodies have been demonstrated in infected and uninfected rodents by conventional techniques. They may, though, produce viremia or viruria and circulate compZement fixing antibodies at the some time. Recapture studies and laboratory observations show that Amapari vírus may present intermittent viremia or viruria in Oryzomys capito ssp. and in Neacomys guianae over a period of months. The second member of the group, as yet unnamed, Be An 29:xJ22, roas isolated in November 1975, from Oryzomys rodents captured in one area located along the T,.ans Amazon highway in Pará State. There is till now, no sound evidence suggesting that these viruses can cause natural infection of man