Hantaviruses (family
Hantaviridae, genus
Orthohantavirus) are found in many different rodents, but also in Soricomorpha (shrews, moles) and Chiroptera (bats) [
1]. The rodent borne hantaviruses can infect humans via aerosols from rodent secretions and cause severe disease such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hemorrhagic cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) with up to 40% case-fatality rate in the latter syndrome [
2]. The relatively recent discovery of the diversity of hantaviruses and their hosts have shed light on the evolutionary history of hantaviruses. Because hantaviruses infect a diverse range of mammalian hosts, e.g. rodents, shrews, moles and bats, cross-species transmission at multiple scales has probably played an important role in hantavirus evolution [
1,
3]. Hantaviruses from soricomorphs and bats has so far not been associated with disease, but it could not be ruled out that some of these have an impact on health.
Puumala virus (PUUV) is so far the only recognized endemic hantavirus in Sweden. PUUV is carried by the bank vole (
Myodes glareolus) and causes HFRS in central and northern Europe [
4‐
6]. There have only been a few reports of possible presence of other hantaviruses in Sweden. One describes the detection of Seoul virus antibodies and RNA in a pet rat in Sweden, however it is not certain that it was infected in Sweden [
7]. Another report suggested presence of Tula virus antibodies in samples from yellow-necked mouse (
Apodemus flavicollis), but no virus RNA or antigen was detected [
8]. In neighboring Finland where PUUV also is endemic, Seewis hantavirus (SWSV) has been found in the common shrew (
Sorex araneus), Boginia hantavirus in water shrew (
Neomys fodiens), Asikkala hantavirus in pygmy shrew (
Sorex minitus), and an Altai-like hantavirus in common shrew [
9]. Hantaviruses have been detected and described from shrews in all continents except Australia and Oceania, mostly with the use of pan-hantavirus primers and RT-PCR. The hantaviruses are enveloped, negative strand RNA viruses with three segments, L, M and S, that encode the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (L), glycoproteins (M), and the nucleocapsid protein (S). The L-segment is the most conserved segment and therefore suitable for design of primers for a pan-hantavirus PCR. So far, there is no knowledge whether Swedish shrews are infected by hantaviruses. There are six recognized shrew species in Sweden that potentially could be infected: Common shrew (
Sorex araneus), Eurasian pygmy shrew (
Sorex minutus), Eurasian water shrew (
Neomys fodiens), Laxmann’s shrew (
Sorex caecutiens), Eurasian least shrew/lesser pygmy shrew (
Sorex minutissimus), and Taiga shrew (
Sorex isodon). To better understand the diversity of hantaviruses in soricomorphs in Sweden, we investigated the presence of hantaviruses in Swedish shrews and determined the pathogen and the host species by genetic methods. Hantavirus RNA was detected in shrew samples by using a pan-hantavirus RT-PCR [
10]. For accurate identification of shrews, we developed a genetic assay based on morphologically determined species using the cytochrome C oxidase I (
COI) and cytochrome B (
CytB) genes.