Rustrela virus
Rustrela virus, also called Rubivirus strelense, is a member of the Rubivirus family and is closely related to rubella virus.
Scientists found Rustrela in a German zoo in several animals with brain inflammation: a donkey, a capybara, and a wallaby. They also found the virus in wild yellow-necked field mice around the zoo. The virus can jump between species and infect both placental mammals and marsupials.
Rustrela has the same overall genome structure as rubella virus, but it carries a few small amino acid changes in the protein that helps the virus attach to host cells. There are four predicted B cell epitopes (parts of the virus that antibodies recognize) in the fusion (E1) protein of Rustrela that are highly conserved with those in rubella virus and Ruhugu virus.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:52 (CET).