Case study of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome
From Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases
Felicia Keesing,
Lisa K. Belden,
Peter Daszak,
Andrew Dobson,
C. Drew Harvell,
Robert D. Holt,
Peter Hudson,
Anna Jolles,
Kate E. Jones,
Charles E. Mitchell,
Samuel S. Myers,
Tiffany Bogich
& Richard S. Ostfeld
Nature
468,
647?652
(02 December 2010)
doi:10.1038/nature09575
Box 2: Case study of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome
Hantaviruses are a group of negative-stranded RNA viruses associated with murid rodents. They can cause severe morbidity and mortality in humans, with case-fatality rates near 40% (ref. 71). Infected rodents shed hantavirus in saliva, urine and faeces; transmission to humans occurs through inhalation of aerosolized excreta as well as through rodent bites72. The risk of human exposure increases as the density and infection prevalence of rodent reservoirs increase72.
In a field study in Oregon, USA, the only variable significantly linked to infection prevalence in deer mouse host populations was mammalian species diversity, with the prevalence of the hantavirus Sin Nombre virus rising from 2% to 14% as diversity declined. Deer mouse population density was not statistically associated with Sin Nombre virus infection prevalence, suggesting that high diversity reduced intraspecific encounters rather than host abundance56. A study in Utah, USA55, also found a negative correlation between small-mammal diversity and Sin Nombre virus infection prevalence in deer mice. As in Oregon, high diversity reduced infection prevalence apparently by reducing intraspecific encounters rather than by reducing host density, a result supported by experiments19...
