Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 9, 2026

Helminth Collection and Identification from Wildlife
Published on: December 14, 2013
Molecular evidence and high genetic diversity of shrew-borne Seewis virus in Slovenia
Katarina Resman1, Miša Korva, Luka Fajs
1Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Zaloška 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
Seewis virus, the shrew-borne hantavirus from Sorex araneus, has been molecularly detected in reservoir hosts in many different central European countries and Russia. Slovenia is a known endemic country for rodent-borne hantaviruses, therefore the aim of the study was to investigate the presence of shrew-borne hantaviruses in insectivores. Viral L, S and M segment have been recovered only from tissue samples of 7 S. araneus, despite several shrew species were tested. Phylogenetic analysis showed high genetic diversity of SWSV in Slovenia, ranging from 3 to 19.4% for different viral segments. The most divergent were M segment sequences, with 19.4% nucleotide divergence among Slovenian strains. Above that, different SWSV strains from Slovenia do not group into separate geographic clusters. While three separate genetic clades were determined, two of them were simultaneously present in one location at the same time.
Related Concept Videos
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Arboviral Encephalitis
Phylogenetic Species Concept in Microbiology
Viruses of Archaea

