Land Use and West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in Wild Mammals

Abstract

We examined West Nile virus (WNV) seroprevalence in wild mammals along a forest-to-urban gradient in the US mid-Atlantic region. WNV antibody prevalence increased with age, urbanization, and date of capture for juveniles and varied signifi cantly between species. These fi ndings suggest several requirements for using mammals as indicators of transmission.

Regional Differences in the Association Between Land Cover and West Nile Virus Disease Incidence in Humans in the United States

“…Identifying predictive covariates of WNV transmission should, therefore, be considered a key part of pathogen management. Numerous studies have reported associations between different land cover types and WNV disease incidence in humans, [3][4][5][6] seroprevalence or infection rates in birds 7 and wild and domesticated mammals, [8][9][10] and infection rates in mosquitoes. 11,12 However, the strength and direction of these correlations have varied considerably.…”

Experimental Infection of Raccoons (Procyon lotor) with West Nile Virus

“…35 The relatively high WNV seroprevalence among raccoons suggests that they may be frequently fed upon by some mosquito species. [2][3][4][5][7][8][9] In addition, significant fecal shedding was noted in some raccoons, which may have transmission implications among wildlife by the behavioral ecology of this mesopredator. Thus, although raccoons are well documented to be commonly exposed to WNV in nature, 3,5 their role in WNV transmission, if any, may be more likely to be associated with fecal contamination of the environment rather than involvement in mosquito-host transmission cycles.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Despite the apparent lack of mammalian involvement in WNV cycles and the general contention that they serve as dead-end hosts, 10 researchers have established that various mammals serve as potential competent reservoir hosts. For example, viremia titers of ≥ 10 5.0 plaque forming units (PFU)/mL serum were observed in some experimentally infected golden hamsters ( Mesocricetus auratus ).…”

Detection of Antibodies against Japanese Encephalitis Virus in Raccoons, Raccoon Dogs and Wild Boars in Japan

“…After incubation, the mixtures were added to Vero 9013 cells, and a plaque assay was carried out as described previously. Sera that reduced the number of plaques by more than 80% in comparison with the mean number of plaques in control wells were considered to be positive according to a previous report of WNV seroprevalence in wild mammals [3]. Next, in order to determine the VN titer of JEV-positive sera, sera were diluted to 1:10 and then serially two-fold diluted from 1:20 to 1:640.…”

“…The mixtures were added to Vero 9013 cells, and a plaque assay was carried out. The titer of VN antibody was expressed as the highest dilution of serum that reduced the number of plaques by more than 80% in comparison with control wells without serum [3].…”