title: Hantavirus seropositivity in rodents in relation to habitat heterogeneity in human-shaped landscapes of Southeast Asia.
abstract: To establish how the conversion of natural habitats for agricultural purposes may impact the distribution of hantaviruses in Southeast Asia, we tested how habitat structure affects hantavirus infection prevalence of common murine rodents that inhabit human-dominated landscapes in this region. For this, we used geo-referenced data of rodents analysed for hantavirus infection and land cover maps produced for the seven study sites in Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR where they were collected. Rodents were tested by serological methods that detect several hantaviruses, including pathogenic ones. Rodents with a seropositive status were more likely to be found near to agriculture on steep land, and also in environments with a high proportion of agriculture on steep land. These results suggest that in Southeast Asia, hantaviruses, which are often associated with generalist rodent species with a preference for agricultural land, may benefit from land conversion to agriculture.
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, Virology Unit, 5 Monivong blvd, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; CSIRO Livestock Industries Biosecurity Flagship, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, 5 Portarlington Road, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Blasdell
authors.affiliation: CNRS-CIRAD AGIRs, Centre d'Infectiologie Christophe Mérieux du Laos, Vientiane, Lao Democratic People's Republic; Department of Helminthology, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, 420/6 Ratchavithi Rd, Ratchathevi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. Electronic address: serge.morand@univ-montp2.fr.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morand
authors.affiliation: Natural Resource Institute Finland, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland.
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Henttonen
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UMR TETIS, F-34093 Montpellier, France; CIRAD, UR AGIRs, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Annelise
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, Virology Unit, 5 Monivong blvd, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, Gateway West, 150 Beach Road, Singapore 189720, Singapore.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buchy
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D017753:Ecosystem; D018778:Hantavirus Infections / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000097:blood*; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
keywords: Habitat; Hantavirus; Land cover; Rodents; Southeast Asia