Cover Art - Journal of Virology

The discovery of hantavirus RNA in archival tissues from the Geata mouse shrew (Myosorex geata) and Kilimanjaro mouse shrew (Myosorex zinki) captured in Tanzania has been selected for the cover of the July 2014 issue of the Journal of Virology. As in earlier reports of previously unrecognized shrew-borne hantaviruses, the generosity of museum curators and field mammalogists has accelerated the acquisition of new knowledge about the spatial and temporal distribution of hantaviruses harbored by shrews, moles and insectivorous bats. These newfound hantaviruses expand the host diversity and geographic range and suggest that ancestral shrews, moles and/or bats may have served as the original mammalian hosts of primordial hantaviruses.

Kang HJ, Stanley WT, Esselstyn JA, Gu SH, Yanagihara R. Expanded host diversity and geographic distribution of hantaviruses in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Virology 2014 Jul 1;88(13):7663-7667. PMCID: PMC4054438