The Ecology and Phylogeny of Hosts Drive the Enzootic Infection Cycles of Hantaviruses
Date
2019-07
Authors
Milholland, Matthew T.
Castro-Arellano, Ivan
Garcia-Pena, Gabriel E.
Mills, James N.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Abstract
Hantaviruses (Family: Hantaviridae; genus: Orthohantavirus) and their associated human diseases occur globally and differ according to their geographic distribution. The structure of small mammal assemblages and phylogenetic relatedness among host species are suggested as strong drivers for the maintenance and spread of hantavirus infections in small mammals. We developed predictive models for hantavirus infection prevalence in rodent assemblages using defined ecological correlates from our current knowledge of hantavirus-host distributions to provide predictive models at the global and continental scale. We utilized data from published research between 1971-2014 and determined the biological and ecological characteristics of small mammal assemblages to predict the prevalence of hantavirus infections. These models are useful in predicting hantavirus disease outbreaks based on environmental and biological information obtained through the surveillance of rodents.
Description
Keywords
zoonosis, virus ecology, rodents, shrews, phylogenetic modeling, hantavirus, Biology
Citation
Milholland, M. T., Castro-Arellano, I., Garcia-Peña, G. E., Mills, J. N. (2019). The ecology and phylogeny of hosts drive the enzootic infection cycles of hantaviruses. Viruses, 11(7): 671.
Rights
Rights Holder
© 2019 The Authors.
Rights License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.