There are no reported naturally occurring viral infections of gerbils, but this is probably a reflection of ignorance rather than reality.
Certainly, clinically significant viral infections are not recognized to be a problem. Nevertheless, laboratory gerbil colonies are often screened for antibodies to a panel of rodent viruses with zoonotic significance or significance to other laboratory rodents, including lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, pneumonia virus of mice (PVM), minute virus of mice (MVM), parainfluenza virus, hantavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), reovirus 3, Sendai virus, and Simian virus 5.
Data on the natural seroprevalence of these agents among laboratory gerbils have not been reported. A recent study examined the actual susceptibility of gerbils to oronasal inoculation with murine norovirus, MHV, PVM, mouse cytomegalovirus, Sendai virus, reovirus 3, and rotavirus (epizootic diarrhea of infant mice (EDIM) virus). Gerbils inoculated with Sendai virus, reovirus 3, and EDIM virus seroconverted, and PVM viral genomes were detected by PCR in tissues of inoculated gerbils, but none of the gerbils exhibited clinical signs. No serologic evidence of infection could be documented with the other agents, although laboratory mice were susceptible to all agents used in the study. Newborn gerbils experimentally inoculated with reovirus 3 have also been shown to develop degenerative lesions in the pancreas and focal necrotizing encephalitis, similar to lesions found in reovirus-infected mice.