What is it about?
We tested this using 283 Atlantic Forest rodent capture records and geographically weighted models that allow us to test if predictors vary spatially. We also assessed the correspondence between proportions of hantavirus hosts in rodent communities and a human vulnerability to hantavirus infection index across the entire Atlantic Forest biome.
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Why is it important?
We found that hantavirus host proportions were more positively influenced by landscape diversity than by a particular habitat or agricultural matrix type. Local small mammal diversity also positively influenced known pathogenic hantavirus host proportions, indicating that a plasticity to habitat quality may be more important for these hosts than competition with native forest dwelling species.
Perspectives
Our findings suggest disease surveillance must be reinforced in the southern and southeastern regions of the biome where the highest predicted hantavirus host proportion and levels of vulnerability spatially match.
Dr Ricardo S Bovendorp
Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz - UESC
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hantavirus host assemblages and human disease in the Atlantic Forest, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, August 2019, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007655.
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