ABSTRACT
The reservoir hosts of those hemorrhagic fever viruses that are not transmitted by arthropods or bats are assigned to the mammalian order Rodentia (rodents), which includes some 2000 different species. Its superfamily Muroidea (hamsters, gerbils true mice, and rats) includes over 1300 species (Wilson and Reeder, 2005). Of the hemorrhagic fever viruses, only those of the family Arenaviridae (arenaviruses) and the bunyaviral genus Hantavirus (hantaviruses) infect rodents, and all those rodents are muroid.
