Spatial and temporal variation of hantavirus bank vole infection in managed forest landscapes

M. Magnusson,B. Hörnfeldt,G. Olsson,B. Niklasson,F. Ecke,H. Khalil,M. Evander

doi:10.1890/es15-00039.1

M. Magnusson, B. Hörnfeldt + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1890/es15-00039.1

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Abstract

Zoonoses are major contributors to emerging infectious diseases globally. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a zoonosis caused by rodent‐borne hantaviruses. In Europe, Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) carried and shed by the bank vole (Myodes glareolus), is the most common cause of HFRS. We explore the relationship of PUUV infection in bank voles, as measured by PUUV antibody detection, with habitat and landscape scale properties during two successive vole cycles in boreal Sweden. Our analysis revealed that PUUV infection in the population was not uniform between cycles and across different landscapes. The mean density index of PUUV antibody positive and negative bank voles were highest in old forest, second highest in cut‐over forest (approx. 0–30 years old) and lowest on mires. Most importantly, old forest was the core habitat, where PUUV antibody positive bank voles were found through the low density phase and the transition between successive vole cycles. In spring, occurrence of antibody positive voles was negatively related to the proportion of cut‐over forest in the surrounding landscape, suggesting that large scale human induced land‐use change altered the occurrence of PUUV infection in voles which has not been shown before. Dependence of PUUV infection on habitat and landscape structure, and the variation in infection load within and between cycles are of importance for human risk assessment.

Highlights

Hantaviruses cause human diseases such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) with up to 150,000 diagnosed cases globally (Jonsson et al 2010)
Spatial and temporal distribution of infected voles The spatial distribution of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) antibody positive bank voles trapped in spring was significantly skewed toward the western part of the study area (Fig. 1; v2 1⁄4 5.61; P, 0.05), where mean patch size of old forest was considerably larger than in the eastern part in the early 1980s
The median proportion of springs with PUUV antibody positive voles was higher in west (Fig. 1; Mann-Whitney U test; P, 0.05)

Summary

Introduction

Hantaviruses (family Bunyaviridae) cause human diseases such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) with up to 150,000 diagnosed cases globally (Jonsson et al 2010). In spite of the large interest regarding hantavirus disease and biology, considerable gaps of knowledge still exist regarding e.g., the ecology of the viruses and how they persist in fluctuating reservoir populations. Nephropathia epidemica (NE) is a milder variant of HFRS caused by the hantavirus Puumala virus (PUUV) present in many parts of Europe (Olsson et al 2010), and bank voles (Myodes glareolus) are the natural reservoir In Sweden, approximately 90% of all diagnosed cases are found in the northern part of the country (Olsson et al 2003)

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