title: Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus infection of spiny rats.
abstract: Enzootic strains of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) circulate in forested habitats of Mexico, Central, and South America, and spiny rats (Proechimys spp.) are believed to be the principal reservoir hosts in several foci. To better understand the host-pathogen interactions and resistance to disease characteristic of many reservoir hosts, we performed experimental infections of F1 progeny from Proechimys chrysaeolus collected at a Colombian enzootic VEEV focus using sympatric and allopatric virus strains. All animals became viremic with a mean peak titer of 3.3 log10 PFU/mL, and all seroconverted with antibody titers from 1:20 to 1:640, which persisted up to 15 months. No signs of disease were observed, including after intracerebral injections. The lack of detectable disease and limited histopathologic lesions in these animals contrast dramatically with the severe disease and histopathologic findings observed in other laboratory rodents and humans, and support their role as reservoir hosts with a long-term coevolutionary relationship to VEEV.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Anne-Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Carrara
authors.forename: Gonzales
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferro
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tamayo
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aronson
authors.forename: Slobodan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paessler
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anishchenko
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boshell
authors.forename: Scott C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Weaver
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003105:Colombia; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D004666:Encephalitis Virus, Venezuelan Equine / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology; D012377:Rodentia / Q000821:virology*; D014766:Viremia; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral