A new permanent cell line derived from the bank vole (Myodes glareolus) as cell culture model for zoonotic viruses

BVK168 proved to be of epithelial morphology expressing tight junctions as well as adherence junction proteins. The BVK168 cells were analyzed for their infectability by several arbo- and robo-viruses: Vesicular stomatitis virus, vaccinia virus, cowpox virus, Sindbis virus, Pixuna virus, Usutu virus, Inkoo virus, Puumalavirus, and Borna disease virus (BDV). The cell line was susceptible for all tested viruses, and most interestingly also for the difficult to propagate BDV.In conclusion, the newly established cell line from wildlife rodents seems to be an excellent tool for the isolation and characterization of new rodent-associated viruses and may be used as in vitro-model to study properties and pathogenesis of these agents.About 800 out of the ~1.400 known human pathogens are of zoonotic origin [1,2]. Recent analyses of emerging infections revealed that three-fourth of the zoonotic agents originate from wild animal reservoirs [2]. Rodents and other small mammals are associated with zoonotic infectious agents belonging to different taxa, i.e. RNA viruses, DNA viruses, bacteria and parasites that induce sometimes severe diseases in humans. Many of these pathogens are associated with a particular rodent reservoir host, thus showing diverse geographical and biotope usage, and often adapted transmission cycles. The occurrence of human infections by rodent-borne pathogens is therefore influenced by the geographical distribution, abundance and the prevalence in the reservoirs [3]. Rodents are known to be the reservoir hosts for a variety of zoonotic viruses which are sometimes tedious to isolate or cultivate in usually applied cell lines. Bank voles (Myodes glareolus) are geographically distributed in central Europe from France to Scandinavia to Lake Baikal, in the South to Northern Spain and Italy, the Balkans, Western and Northern Turkey, as well as in Britain and south-west Ireland [4]. So far bank voles have been shown to be an important reservoir or/and host for man