New data about home range and movements of Oligoryzomys flavescens (Rodentia: Cricetidae) help to understand the spread and transmission of Andes virus that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Abstract

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is an emerging infectious disease caused by viruses of the genus Orthohantavirus. The rodent Oligoryzomys flavescens is distributed along four countries of South America. In Argentina, O. flavescens acts as a reservoir of three genotypes of ANDV orthohantavirus. The aims of this work were to estimate home range size and movements—with spool‐and‐line and radiotelemetry—of infected and non‐infected O. flavescens in order to understand the spread and transmission of the virus. O. flavescens use a wide area to satisfice its requirements, reaching a home range of 1.82 ha during spring. Orthohantavirus infection did not change the behaviour of individuals. We observed a great overlapping in the home range of infected and non‐infected individuals resulting in a high probability of virus dispersion on rodent population. These results show that human health risks could be high on island environments and knowledge about the movement ecology of O. flavescens provides useful information on prevention.

Modelling relative abundance of Oligoryzomys flavescens, an Orthohantavirus reservoir, in an endemic hantavirus pulmonary syndrome zone

“…According to our prediction, the highest relative abundance of O. flavescens is in the northeast of the province where precipitation is higher and there are greater amounts of water bodies, consistent with what was observed on habitat use of this species by other authors (Maroli et al, 2020, 2021). This highest proportion of the reservoir species could represent a higher risk of HPS in those specific areas (de Oliveira et al, 2014; Mills et al, 2010; Yates et al, 2002), though further studies considering other factors that could determine human risk are needed.…”

“…Ethics approval is not required because the project did not include the manipulation of live individuals nor the extraction of tissue from these. authors (Maroli et al, 2020(Maroli et al, , 2021. This highest proportion of the reservoir species could represent a higher risk of HPS in those specific areas (de Oliveira et al, 2014;Mills et al, 2010;Yates et al, 2002), though further studies considering other factors that could determine human risk are needed.…”

The influence of sugarcane pre‐harvest fire on hantavirus prevalence in Neotropical small mammals

“…By hypothesis, a male‐biased dispersal pattern results in male‐biased hantavirus prevalence in these species. Such a pattern would tend to involve males, likely because of their longer dispersal (young) and larger home range and higher frequency of agonistic interaction (adults) than females (Maroli et al, 2020). However, no significant variation in age class was detected in this study, possibly due to the relatively small number of infected individuals.…”

Orthohantavirus infection in two rodent species that inhabit wetlands in the central-east region of Argentina

“…In Argentina, four HPS endemic regions were identified; being Delta and Paraná islands ecoregion one of the most affected settings of the Central region (region with 36.7% of total country cases), particularly in rural and natural environmental, where [20,21], but infected rodents were particularly present on the island [21,22].…”

“…In Argentina, four HPS endemic regions were identified; being Delta and Paraná islands ecoregion one of the most affected settings of the Central region (region with 36.7% of total country cases), particularly in rural and natural environmental, where around 23.9% cases occurs with high case-fatality rate values [18, 19]. Additionally, previous research carried out in diverse environmental settings inside this ecoregion recorded potential hantavirus host rodents in grassland, continental forest, riparian forest and islands [20, 21], but infected rodents were particularly present on the island [21, 22].…”