BOB体育

Title Transmission Ecology of Sin Nobmre Hantavirus in North American Deermouse Populations in Outdoor Enclosures

Presented by Karoun H. Bagamian, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Association Department of Geography Emerging Pathogens Institute

Refreshments will be provided.

Models of directly transmitted pathogens often predict that increased host population densities result in increased disease, but mark-recapture data from well-studied rodent-virus host-pathogen systems have reported conflicting results. Concurrently, field studies have identified the importance of seasonality, host physiology and population processes on infection dynamics. Traditionally, transmission information is deduced from disease prevalence data, or determined in artificial laboratory settings, both of which do not adequately illustrate the natural progression of disease through a host population, and often separate ecological factors from within-host pathological and immunological factors.

We addressed these discrepancies and explored questions about the role of host population density, seasonality, and host aggression on disease transmission by conducting manipulative field transmission experiments using North American deermice naturally infected with Sin Nombre hantavirus in outdoor enclosures. An example of the OneHealth concept, this multidisciplinary project fused ecological, molecular, and immunological approaches to understand SNV infection and transmission in a natural host-pathogen system.