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Ecology of hantavirus in a changing world
Author(s) -
Dearing M. Denise,
Dizney Laurie
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05452.x
Subject(s) - hantavirus , hantavirus pulmonary syndrome , ecology , hantavirus infection , biology , host (biology) , population , disease reservoir , climate change , predation , geography , zoology , virology , virus , environmental health , medicine
Hantavirus is a genus of virus represented by 45 different species and is hosted by small mammals, predominantly rats and mice. Roughly, half of all hantaviruses cause diseases in humans that vary in morbidity from mild to severe. The natural and anthropogenic changes occurring in the environment appear to be impacting the ecology of hantaviruses and their natural hosts as well as the incidence of hantaviral diseases in humans. Although such studies are limited at this time, there is evidence that natural climate cycles such as El Niño as well as anthropogenic climate change enhance hantavirus prevalence when host population dynamics are driven by food availability. Climate appears to have less of an effect on hantavirus when host populations are controlled by predators. Human alteration to the landscape also appears to enhance hantavirus prevalence when the disturbance regime enriches the environment for the host, for example, agriculture. More long‐term studies on multiple species of hantavirus are needed to accurately predict the outcome of changing environmental conditions on prevalence in hosts as well as disease incidence in humans.