TRANSMISSION ECOLOGY OF SIN NOMBRE HANTAVIRUS IN DEER MOUSE POPULATIONS IN OUTDOOR ENCLOSURES Open Access

Bagamian, Karoun Heidi (2012)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/j67314470?locale=en
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Abstract


Since the inception of the multidisciplinary field of disease ecology in 1979,
ecologists and public health researchers have been exploring natural disease systems and
attempting to build predictive models of disease. Disease models of directly transmitted
pathogens often predict that increased host population densities result in increased levels of
disease in an environment, but mark-recapture data from multiple well-studied rodent-virus
host-pathogen systems have reported conflicting results. Concurrently, these field studies
have identified the importance of seasonality, host physiology and population processes on
infection dynamics. Traditionally, transmission information is often deduced from disease
prevalence data, or determined in highly 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. In this
dissertation, I address these discrepancies and explore questions about the role of host
population density, seasonality, and host aggression on disease transmission by conducting
manipulative field transmission experiments using deer mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus) naturally
infected with Sin Nombre hantavirus (SNV) in outdoor enclosures. This project is largely
interdisciplinary and uses ecological, molecular, and immunological approaches to
understand SNV infection and transmission in a natural host-pathogen system. The results
of this study indicate that seasonality and host heterogeneities in behavior and viral infection
load may have a stronger influence on disease transmission dynamics than host population
density. This project reports the first successful SNV transmission experiment in a closed
deer-mouse population. Also, in the process of this research, a new sub-specialty of disease
ecology-transmission ecology-defined as the study of within- and between-host infection
dynamics and their relationship to transmission-related host population processes and
environmental conditions in an effort to better understand natural disease systems-was
developed.

Table of Contents



Table of Contents
1
Introduction







1
2
Effects of population density and seasonality on

13

Sin Nombre hantavirus transmission in North American

deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) in outdoor enclosures


2.1 Introduction






15
2.2 Research Design and Methods



19


2.3 Results







29
2.4 Discussion






37
3
Transmission ecology of Sin Nombre hantavirus in
44
naturally infected deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus)
populations in outdoor enclosures

3.1 Introduction






46


3.2 Research Design and Methods



52


3.3 Results







63
3.4 Discussion






68
4
Summary







75
5
Supplementary Figures and Tables



82
6
References







84
7
Appendix







92
7.1 Detection of P. Maniculatus GAPDH RNA from Orophayngeal fluids
(OPF) from swabs
7.2 Additional Information about SNV infected mice from 2007-
2008 experiments

About this Dissertation

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