WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - A previously unknown virus has killed three organ transplant patients in Australia, researchers reported on Monday.

The three patients all received organs from the same donor, the team at Columbia University in New York, the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, and 454 Life Sciences said.

They analyzed the organs and found little pieces of a virus related to lymphocytic choreomeningitis virus or LCMV, a rodent virus that occasionally infects people and that has also been linked with disease in organ transplant patients.

They have not named the new virus yet, which evaded current standard screening tests because it was so different.

Transplant patients have a special risk of infection because they take drugs to suppress their immune systems and prevent rejection of the new organ.

The researchers used a new test from 454 Life Sciences, which is based in Branford, Connecticut and was acquired by Roche AG <ROG.VX> last month from Curagen <CRGN.O>.

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