Link between small mammals and evolution of hepatitis A virus to humans discovered
Tuesday, November 3, 2015 - 19:00
in Biology & Nature
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) are part of an international team led by the University of Bonn, Germany, who have found a link between the origin of hepatitis A virus (HAV) and small mammals. With the emergence of Ebola virus from bats and hantaviruses from rodents, investigators say identifying the other species infected with HAV provides novel insight into the evolution of HAV and how it spread to humans, and highlights the utility of analyzing animal reservoirs for risk assessment of emerging viruses.