Pet Rodents and Fatal Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis in Transplant Patients

Overview

Journal Emerg Infect Dis

Specialty Infectious Diseases

Date 2007 Jun 8

PMID 17553250

Citations 37

Authors

Brian R Amman

Boris I Pavlin

Cesar G Albarino

James A Comer

Bobbie R Erickson

Jennifer B Oliver

Tara K Sealy

Martin J Vincent

Stuart T Nichol

Christopher D Paddock

Abbigail J Tumpey

Kent D Wagoner

R David Glauer

Kathleen A Smith

Kim A Winpisinger

Melody S Parsely

Phil Wyrick

Christopher H Hannafin

Utpala Bandy

Sherif Zaki

Pierre E Rollin

Thomas G Ksiazek

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In April 2005, 4 transplant recipients became ill after receiving organs infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV); 3 subsequently died. All organs came from a donor who had been exposed to a hamster infected with LCMV. The hamster was traced back through a Rhode Island pet store to a distribution center in Ohio, and more LCMV-infected hamsters were discovered in both. Rodents from the Ohio facility and its parent facility in Arkansas were tested for the same LCMV strain as the 1 involved in the transplant-associated deaths. Phylogenetic analysis of virus sequences linked the rodents from the Ohio facility to the Rhode Island pet store, the index hamster, and the transplant recipients. This report details the animal traceback and the supporting laboratory investigations.

Citing Articles

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A review of emerging health threats from zoonotic New World mammarenaviruses.

Lendino A, Castellanos A, Pigott D, Han B BMC Microbiol. 2024; 24(1):115.

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Olivieri N, Othman L, Flannery D, Gordon S Pediatr Res. 2023; 95(2):456-463.

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