title: Transmission ecology of Sin Nombre hantavirus in naturally infected North American deermouse populations in outdoor enclosures.
abstract: Sin Nombre hantavirus (SNV), hosted by the North American deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in North America. Most transmission studies in the host were conducted under artificial conditions, or extrapolated information from mark-recapture data. Previous studies using experimentally infected deermice were unable to demonstrate SNV transmission. We explored SNV transmission in outdoor enclosures using naturally infected deermice. Deermice acquiring SNV in enclosures had detectable viral RNA in blood throughout the acute phase of infection and acquired significantly more new wounds (indicating aggressive encounters) than uninfected deermice. Naturally-infected wild deermice had a highly variable antibody response to infection, and levels of viral RNA sustained in blood varied as much as 100-fold, even in individuals infected with identical strains of virus. Deermice that infected other susceptible individuals tended to have a higher viral RNA load than those that did not infect other deermice. Our study is a first step in exploring the transmission ecology of SNV infection in deermice and provides new knowledge about the factors contributing to the increase of the prevalence of a zoonotic pathogen in its reservoir host and to changes in the risk of HPS to human populations. The techniques pioneered in this study have implications for a wide range of zoonotic disease studies.
authors.affiliation: Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution Program, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America. karoun11@gmail.com
authors.forename: Karoun H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Bagamian
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Towner
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kuenzi
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Douglass
authors.forename: Pierre E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Rollin
authors.forename: Lance A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Mills
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D018804:Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary*; D006801:Humans; D009009:Montana; D010542:Peromyscus; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology*; D029261:Sin Nombre virus / Q000502:physiology*; D019562:Viral Load; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000635:transmission*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D017931:DNA Primers; D012367:RNA, Viral