Two arenaviruses were detected in pygmy mice (Mus spp.) by screening 764 small mammals in Ghana. The Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis), the known Lassa virus reservoir, was the dominant indoor rodent species in 4 of 10 sites, and accounted for 27% of all captured rodents. No rodent captured indoors tested positive for an arenavirus.
Keywords: Ghana; Lassa fever; Lassa virus; Murinae; Rodentia; Western Africa; arenaviruses; emerging communicable diseases; epidemiology; pygmy mice; reservoirs; viruses; west Africa; zoonoses.