scholarly journals Continuing Orthohantavirus Circulation in Deer Mice in Western Montana

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1006
Author(s):  
Brandi N. Williamson ◽  
Kimberly Meade-White ◽  
Kristin Boardman ◽  
Jonathan E. Schulz ◽  
Carson T. Telford ◽  
...  

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is an often-fatal disease caused by New World hantaviruses, such as Sin Nombre orthohantavirus (SNV). In the US, >800 cases of HPS have been confirmed since it was first discovered in 1993, of which 43 were reported from the state of Montana. The primary cause of HPS in the US is SNV, which is primarily found in the reservoir host Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse). The reservoir host covers most of the US, including Montana, where multiple studies found SNV in local deer mouse populations. This study aimed to check the prevalence of SNV in the deer mice at popular recreation sites throughout the Bitterroot Valley in Western Montana as compared to previous studies in western Montana. We found high prevalence (up to 20%) of deer mice positive for SNV RNA in the lungs. We were unable to obtain a SNV tissue culture isolate from the lungs but could passage SNV from lung tissue into naïve deer mice. Our findings demonstrate continuing circulation of SNV in western Montana.

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 1728-1731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Bai ◽  
Charles H. Calisher ◽  
Michael Y. Kosoy ◽  
J. Jeffrey Root ◽  
Jeffrey B. Doty

ABSTRACTBartonella infections are common in rodents. From 1994 to 2006, longitudinal studies of a rodent community, consisting mainly of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), were conducted in southwestern Colorado to study hantaviruses. Blood samples from deer mice captured one or more times during the period 2003 to 2006 (n= 737) were selected to study bartonellae in deer mice. Bartonellae were found to be widely distributed in that population, with an overall prevalence of 82.4% (607/737 mice). No correlation was found between bartonella prevalence and deer mouse weight or sex. Persistent or successive infections with bartonellae were observed in deer mice captured repeatedly, with a prevalence of 83.9% (297/354), and the infection appeared to last for more than 1 year in some of them. Persistent infection with bartonellae may explain the high prevalence of these bacteria in deer mice at this site and, perhaps, elsewhere. Genetic analysis demonstrated that deer mouse-borne bartonella isolates at this site belong to the same species,B. vinsoniisubsp.arupensis, demonstrating a specific relationship betweenB. vinsoniisubsp.arupensisand deer mice.


2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafał Zwolak ◽  
Kerry R. Foresman

Deer mouse ( Peromyscus maniculatus (Wagner, 1845)) populations increase dramatically after wildfires. These increases are puzzling because there are no obvious food sources or vegetation cover in severely burned areas. We conducted a capture–mark–recapture study of deer mice in a mosaic of burned and unburned montane forests in western Montana to determine if their postfire increase could be explained by source–sink dynamics, with burned areas acting as a sink. When overall mouse densities were very low, the vast majority of the population was found in burned areas. Mice appeared regularly in unburned forest only when the densities were high. This pattern is precisely opposite to the expected results if the sink hypothesis were correct. Moreover, mice in burned areas did not show decreased body mass, reproductive performance, or survival when compared with mice in unburned areas. Age structure and sex ratio did not differ between burned and unburned sites. We conclude that burned areas do not function as population sinks; rather, they represent high-quality habitat for deer mice.


1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 585-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Netski ◽  
Brandolyn H. Thran ◽  
Stephen C. St. Jeor

ABSTRACT Sin Nombre virus (SNV), a member of the Hantavirusgenus, causes acute viral pneumonia in humans and is thought to persistently infect mice. The deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, has been identified as the primary reservoir host for SNV. To understand SNV infection of P. maniculatus, we examined wild deer mice for localization of viral antigens and nucleic acid. Morphologic examination consistently revealed septal edema within lung tissue and mononuclear cell infiltrates in portal areas of the liver. Immunohistochemical analysis of SNV-infected deer mice identified viral antigens within lung, liver, kidney, and spleen. The lungs consistently presented with the highest levels of viral antigen by immunohistochemistry and with the highest levels of nucleic acid by reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR. The mononuclear cell infiltrates surrounding liver portal triads were positive for SNV antigens in addition to resident macrophages in liver sinuses. Spleen tissue contained antigens in both the red pulp and the periartereolar region of the white pulp. The kidney presented with no gross pathology, although antigens could be localized to glomeruli. Virus antigen levels within the kidney were highest in deer mice that did not have antibodies to SNV but contained viral nucleic acid detectable by RT PCR. Since transmission is thought to occur via urine, our results suggest that virus transmission may be highest in the early stages of infection. In addition, these results indicate that SNV does cause some pathology within its reservoir host.


Author(s):  
C. D. Humphrey ◽  
C.S. Goldsmith ◽  
L. Elliott ◽  
S.R. Zaki

An outbreak of unexplained acute pulmonary syndrome with high fatality was recognized in the spring of 1993 in the southwestern United States. The cause of the illness was quickly identified serologically and genetically as a hantavirus and the disease was named hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Recently, the virus was isolated from deer mice which had been trapped near the homes of HPS patients, and cultivated in Vero E6 cells. We identified the cultivated virus by negative-stain direct and colloidal gold immune electron microscopy (EM).Virus was extracted, clarified, and concentrated from unfixed and 0.25% glutaraldehyde fixed supernatant fluids of infected Vero E6 cells by a procedure described previously. Concentrated virus suspensions tested by direct EM were applied to glow-discharge treated formvar-carbon filmed grids, blotted, and stained with 0.5% uranyl acetate (UA) or with 2% phosphotungstic acid (PTA) pH 6.5. Virus suspensions for immune colloidal gold identification were adsorbed similarly to filmed grids but incubated for 1 hr on drops of 1:50 diluted monoclonal antibody to Prospect Hill virus nucleoprotein or with 1:50 diluted sera from HPS virus infected deer mice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
Karl Aiginger

AbstractAfter President Trump’s departure, many expected that the transatlantic partnership would return to its previous state with the US playing a leading role. This article challenges that view. Instead, a new world order is foreseen, with different partnerships and spheres of influence. Europe can decide whether it wants to remain small and homogeneous or a larger but also more heterogenous Union that leads in welfare indicators such as life expectancy, fighting poverty and limiting climate change. Expanding this lead and communicating its uniqueness can empower Europe to combine enlargement and deepening, which appears unlikely without changes in governance and self-confidence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan D. Griffin ◽  
Mable Chan ◽  
Nikesh Tailor ◽  
Emelissa J. Mendoza ◽  
Anders Leung ◽  
...  

AbstractWidespread circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in humans raises the theoretical risk of reverse zoonosis events with wildlife, reintroductions of SARS-CoV-2 into permissive nondomesticated animals. Here we report that North American deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection following intranasal exposure to a human isolate, resulting in viral replication in the upper and lower respiratory tract with little or no signs of disease. Further, shed infectious virus is detectable in nasal washes, oropharyngeal and rectal swabs, and viral RNA is detectable in feces and occasionally urine. We further show that deer mice are capable of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to naïve deer mice through direct contact. The extent to which these observations may translate to wild deer mouse populations remains unclear, and the risk of reverse zoonosis and/or the potential for the establishment of Peromyscus rodents as a North American reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown.


Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Vivek Khanal ◽  
Harrington Wells ◽  
Akhtar Ali

Field information about viruses infecting crops is fundamental for understanding the severity of the effects they cause in plants. To determine the status of cucurbit viruses, surveys were conducted for three consecutive years (2016–2018) in different agricultural districts of Oklahoma. A total of 1331 leaf samples from >90 fields were randomly collected from both symptomatic and asymptomatic cucurbit plants across 11 counties. All samples were tested with the dot-immunobinding assay (DIBA) against the antisera of 10 known viruses. Samples infected with papaya ringspot virus (PRSV-W), watermelon mosaic virus (WMV), zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), and cucurbit aphid-borne-yellows virus (CABYV) were also tested by RT-PCR. Of the 10 viruses, PRSV-W was the most widespread, with an overall prevalence of 59.1%, present in all 11 counties, followed by ZYMV (27.6%), in 10 counties, and WMV (20.7%), in seven counties, while the remaining viruses were present sporadically with low incidence. Approximately 42% of the infected samples were positive, with more than one virus indicating a high proportion of mixed infections. CABYV was detected for the first time in Oklahoma, and the phylogenetic analysis of the first complete genome sequence of a CABYV isolate (BL-4) from the US showed a close relationship with Asian isolates.


Virology ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 204 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek R. Nerurkar ◽  
Jin-Won Song ◽  
Ki-Joon Song ◽  
James W. Nagle ◽  
Brian Hjelle ◽  
...  

1974 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. F. S. Sadleir

The duration and intensity of reproduction in deer mice was followed for four seasons by live and dead trapping. Three populations living in different types of forest habitat had synchronous breeding seasons, although there were major differences between years in the time of onset and cessation of breeding and in the proportion of females in breeding condition. No consistent relationships were found between either density changes or the incidence of parasitism and reproductive phenology. In the absence of overt food fluctuations there was a relationship between unseasonable temperature changes and breeding. Sudden increases in temperature may have stimulated the onset of breeding but its cessation before the autumn equinox was always associated with a considerable decrease in temperature if this occurred after April. In 57 pregnancies the corpora lutea count was 4.75 ± 1.12 and embryo count was 4.52 ± 1.16. [Formula: see text].


Author(s):  
Emily R Hager ◽  
Hopi E Hoekstra

Abstract Determining how variation in morphology affects animal performance (and ultimately fitness) is key to understanding the complete process of evolutionary adaptation. Long tails have evolved many times in arboreal and semi-arboreal rodents; in deer mice, long tails have evolved repeatedly in populations occupying forested habit even within a single species (Peromyscus maniculatus). Here we use a combination of functional modeling, laboratory studies, and museum records to test hypotheses about the function of tail-length variation in deer mice. First, we use computational models, informed by museum records documenting natural variation in tail length, to test whether differences in tail morphology between forest and prairie subspecies can influence performance in behavioral contexts relevant for tail use. We find that the deer mouse tail plays little role in statically adjusting center of mass or in correcting body pitch and yaw, but rather it can affect body roll during arboreal locomotion. In this context, we find that even intraspecific tail-length variation could result in substantial differences in how much body rotation results from equivalent tail motions (i.e., tail effectiveness), but the relationship between commonly-used metrics of tail-length variation and effectiveness is non-linear. We further test whether caudal vertebra length, number, and shape are associated with differences in how much the tail can bend to curve around narrow substrates (i.e., tail curvature) and find that, as predicted, the shape of the caudal vertebrae is associated with intervertebral bending angle across taxa. However, although forest and prairie mice typically differ in both the length and number of caudal vertebrae, we do not find evidence that this pattern is the result of a functional trade-off related to tail curvature. Together, these results highlight how even simple models can both generate and exclude hypotheses about the functional consequences of trait variation for organismal-level performance.


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