title: Selective predation on hantavirus-infected voles by owls and confounding effects from landscape properties.
abstract: It has been suggested that predators may protect human health through reducing disease-host densities or selectively preying on infected individuals from the population. However, this has not been tested empirically. We hypothesized that Tengmalm's owl (Aegolius funereus) selectively preys on hantavirus-infected individuals of its staple prey, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). Bank voles are hosts of Puumala hantavirus, which causes a form of hemorrhagic fever in humans. Selective predation by owls on infected voles may reduce human disease risk. We compared the prevalence of anti-Puumala hantavirus antibodies (seroprevalence), in bank voles cached by owls in nest boxes to seroprevalence in voles trapped in closed-canopy forest around each nest box. We found no general difference in seroprevalence. Forest landscape structure could partly account for the observed patterns in seroprevalence. Only in more connected forest patches was seroprevalence in bank voles cached in nest boxes higher than seroprevalence in trapped voles. This effect disappeared with increasing forest patch isolation, as seroprevalence in trapped voles increased with forest patch isolation, but did not in cached voles. Our results suggest a complex relationship between zoonotic disease prevalence in hosts, their predators, and landscape structure. Some mechanisms that may have caused the seroprevalence patterns in our results include higher bank vole density in isolated forest patches. This study offers future research potential to shed further light on the contribution of predators and landscape properties to human health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden. hussein.khalil@slu.se.
authors.forename: Hussein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khalil
authors.affiliation: Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden.|Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ecke
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Virology, Umeå University, 901 85, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Magnus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Evander
authors.affiliation: Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Birger
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hörnfeldt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000821:virology*; D006476:Orthohantavirus; D006480:Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D020305:Strigiformes
keywords: Disease ecology; Disease host; Human health; Puumala virus; Zoonosis