Mòjiāng virus

Mòjiāng virus (MojV), scientific name Parahenipavirus mojiangense, is a virus in the family Paramyxoviridae. Antibodies raised against its glycoproteins are serologically distinct from those of other henipaviruses, which show higher cross-reactivity with one another. It came to attention in the spring of 2012, when three miners working in an abandoned copper mine in Mojiang Hani Autonomous County in south China developed fatal pneumonia. Samples were taken to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where tests showed they were not the bat coronavirus Rp3 nor SARS-CoV-2. Mammals in the cave were tested, and infectious virus was recovered only from four samples of the rat Rattus flavipectus. No person-to-person transmission was documented, and the full range of susceptible hosts is unknown. Mòjiāng is the only henipavirus believed to be found primarily in rodents rather than bats. Its cell surface receptor remains unknown: unlike other henipaviruses it does not bind Ephrin B2 or B3, nor sialic acid or CD150, and its attachment glycoprotein is the most divergent of its genes.