BLACKSBURG, Va. – After a new study at Virginia Tech, some professionals have identified hantavirus as having “pandemic potential.”
“This project is timely because hantavirus is considered an emerging disease of pandemic potential with symptoms that resemble severe COVID-19 infections.”
Paanwaris Paansri, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Researchers at VT have recently studied the rodent hosts of the virus and gained a better understanding of how it works. They also discovered that Virginia, Colorado, and Texas may be hotspots for the virus, and 15 species of rodents were identified as carriers.
“In North America, Peromyscus maniculatus, the deer mouse, is the most common carrier but our study also revealed that other rodent species have a higher prevalence of hantavirus, which changes the current paradigm in hantavirus circulation in wildlife. This new information is expected to help us understand where and when hantavirus is most likely to occur, which is crucial for predicting outbreaks and informing public health officials.”
Paanwaris Paansri, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Different kinds of hantaviruses have been identified globally, such as the Hantaan virus in Asia, the Dobrava-Belgrade virus in Europe, and the Sin Nombre virus and Andes virus in North and South America.
There is still much to learn about hantavirus, although researchers have found that the pathogen spreads to humans by inhalation of aerosolized excreta, urine, or saliva from asymptomatic rodent hosts. Unfortunately, the virus can be fatal, as we saw in Betsy Arakawa.
“This expands our understanding of the basic biology of the virus and shows that the virus is more adaptable than previously believed. This has direct implications for surveillance strategies and risk assessments and can help explain some cases of hantavirus in humans where the main reservoir is absent or rare.”
Paanwaris Paansri, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
The VT research team also gained a better understanding of seasonal trends and the effects of seasonal weather shifts as a result of the study. They found that warmer and wetter winters can increase rodent populations, and drier conditions can create higher amounts of contaminated dust that could contain particles of the virus from rodent excrement and saliva.
“Climate change can cause population increases or distributional shifts of rodents, altering the epidemiology of hantavirus. These fluctuations can lead to more frequent rodent-human interactions and increase the chance of spillover. We found some evidence that rodent demography and hantavirus prevalence can be predicted months in advance.”
Paanwaris Paansri, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
For the full article from Virginia Tech, you can click here.
