Abstract
Myanmar is one of the most biodiverse countries from a species perspective in Southeast Asia, yet there is minimal published data on zoonotic viruses in small mammals. From July 2017 to August 2018, wildlife sampling was conducted at human-animal interfaces at sites in the Yangon Region and Kayin State. To investigate virus diversity of commensal rodents and shrew, rectal swabs were collected from mice (Mus sp., N = 3), rats (Rattus norvegicus, N = 80; Rattus rattus, N = 6), and Southeast Asian shrews (Crocidura fuliginosa, N = 8). RNA was extracted from rectal swabs, made into cDNA, and subjected to metagenomic next-generation sequencing followed by phylogenetic analysis for virus identification and taxonomic placement. The study provides the first detection of Wencheng shrew virus (WESV) in Myanmar and the first report in C. fuliginosa. A novel member of the genus Cardiovirus was also detected in R. norvegicus and clustered with Cardiovirus theileri sequences previously identified in wild rats from China. Further characterization of viruses circulating in small mammals will help inform public health officials of potential zoonotic risks in a region with virus surveillance gaps and ongoing land use change which may be increasing the risk of zoonotic disease emergence.
Data availability
The sequencing data generated in this study have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under BioProject accession number PRJNA1291628. Repository of alignments and scripts available at [https://github.com/paolij/Myanmar_Small_Mammals](https:/github.com/paolij/Myanmar_Small_Mammals).
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) within the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MOALI); Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC); and the Department of Medical Research (DMR) within the Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS), Myanmar for their support and facilitation of this research. We are thankful to Dr. Kyaw Yan Naing Tun for his valuable guidance and assistance. We also extend our appreciation to the field and laboratory staff for their dedicated contributions.
Funding
The sample collection of this study was made possible through support by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project (cooperative agreement number AID-OAA-A-14-00102 and GHN-A-OO-09-0001000). The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. The sponsor did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Support for the preparation of this manuscript including sequencing and data analysis was provided by the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute and the University of Florida Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine.
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JEP, AAL, and NGC drafted the manuscript. JEP, AAL, NGC, NvT, RF, EW, OA, YTW, MTM, WZT, JH, MV, TG, CKJ, JM, KS, CNM, and SM curated and analysed the data. MV, TG, CKJ, JM, MEvF, CNM, and SM conceptualised the study. RF, OA, YTW, MTM, WZT, MEvF, CNM, JM, and SM acquired funding. MEvF, CNM, and SM provided resources and supervision. JEP, AAL, and CNM prepared visualisations. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results, commented on and critically revised the manuscript, and approved the final version for submission.
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Small mammals were humanely trapped, handled, and sampled in accordance with protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of California at Davis (Protocol 19300) and of the Smithsonian Institution (Protocol 16 − 05). The authors complied with the ARRIVE Essential 10 guidelines.
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Paoli, J.E., Aung, O., Lilak, A.A. et al. Detection of Wencheng shrew virus and cardiovirus from small mammals in Myanmar. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38406-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38406-w
