Research into the deaths of three men in southwestern China has turned up an intriguing new viral species. The men contracted severe pneumonia and died in June 2012 after removing slag from a derelict copper mine. Analysis of anal swabs from rats in the mine revealed a potential killer: a virus resembling those in the Henipavirus genus, scientists reported in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases. Two of the three confirmed henipavirus strains are deadly to humans, and all three appear to circulate in the wild in fruit-eating bats called flying foxes. Bats and shrews in the mine in Yunnan tested negative for the new virus, named Moji-ang paramyxovirus (MojV); only rats were infected. MojV "could be a 'bridging' virus between those in bats and rodents," says Lin-Fa Wang of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.
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