A Novel Orthohepadnavirus Identified in a Dead Maxwell’s Duiker (Philantomba maxwellii) in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire

Researchers have identified a novel orthohepadnavirus, tentatively named Taï Forest hepadnavirus, in a dead Maxwell’s duiker (Philantomba maxwellii) from Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. This discovery marks the first orthohepadnavirus described in an artiodactyl species. Using the VirCapSeq-VERT platform, which enables viral discovery through sequencing, the study analyzed 21 samples from six duikers and detected the virus in one individual, with the highest copy numbers found in the spleen, lung, blood, and liver. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the virus is a divergent member of the mammalian clade of orthohepadnaviruses, though its exact relationship to other members remains uncertain. The findings suggest potential pathogenicity, given viral load levels comparable to those seen in human chronic infections, but further research is needed to confirm this and explore its prevalence in artiodactyl populations.

Gogarten, J. F., Ulrich, M., Bhuva, N., Garcia, J., Jain, K., Lee, B., Löhrich, T., Oleynik, A., Couacy-Hymann, E., Fuh Neba, T., Mishra, N., Briese, T., Calvignac-Spencer, S., Lipkin, W. I., & Leendertz, F. H. (2019). A Novel Orthohepadnavirus Identified in a Dead Maxwell’s Duiker (Philantomba maxwellii) in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. Viruses, 11(3), 279. https://doi.org/10.3390/v11030279