Abstract
Influenza A virus (IAV) is known to circulate among human and animal reservoirs, yet there are few studies that address the potential for urban rodents to carry and shed IAV. Rodents are often used as influenza models in the lab, but the few field studies that have looked for evidence of IAV in rodents have done so primarily in rural areas following outbreaks of IAV in poultry. This study sought to assess the prevalence of IAV recovered from wild Norway rats in a dense urban location (Boston). To do this, we sampled the oronasal cavity, paws, and lungs of Norway rats trapped by the City of Boston’s Inspectional Services from December 2016 to September 2018. All samples were screened by real-time, reverse transcriptase PCR targeting the conserved IAV matrix segment. A total of 163 rats were trapped, 18 of which (11.04%) were RT-PCR positive for IAV in either oronasal swabs (9), paw swabs (9), both (2), or lung homogenates (2). A generalized linear model indicated that month and geographic location were correlated with IAV-positive PCR status of rats. A seasonal trend in IAV-PCR status was observed with the highest prevalence occurring in the winter months (December-January) followed by a decline over the course of the year, reaching its lowest prevalence in September. Sex and weight of rats were not significantly associated with IAV-PCR status, suggesting that rodent demography is not a primary driver of infection. This pilot study provides evidence of the need to further investigate the role that wild rats may play as reservoirs or mechanical vectors for IAV circulation in urban environments across seasons.
Highlights
Influenza A virus (IAV) is a single-stranded, negative-sense, RNA virus with a segmented genome that belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae
The finding of IAV nucleic acid in urban Norway rats is of public health significance given the close physical proximity between humans and rats in urban environments
Our study is among the first to provide evidence that rodents may play a role in the ecology of IAV in dense, urban environments
Summary
Influenza A virus (IAV) is a single-stranded, negative-sense, RNA virus with a segmented genome that belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae. The worst of which was the Spanish Flu of 1918, can kill millions of otherwise healthy people worldwide, while seasonal influenza kills thousands of people every year and causes billions of dollars in loss of productivity (Molinari et al, 2007). In 2015, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cost the U.S poultry industry one billion dollars and resulted in the culling of 50 million. Influenza in Wild Norway Rats turkeys and chickens (McKenna, 2015). While such HPAI outbreaks have required extreme control measures as a response, the threat of outbreaks has been continuous in the past 20 years. Persistent IAV infection and circulation amongst swine primarily causes impaired growth and weight loss leading to economic losses for producers (Kothalawala et al, 2006)
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