TY  - JOUR
A1  - Reil, Daniela
A1  - Imholt, Christian
A1  - Rosenfeld, Ulrike M.
A1  - Drewes, Stephan
A1  - Fischer, S.
A1  - Heuser, Emil
A1  - Petraityte-Burneikiene, Rasa
A1  - Ulrich, R. G.
A1  - Jacob, J.
T1  - Validation of the Puumala virus rapid field test for bank voles in Germany
JF  - Epidemiology and infection
N2  - Puumala virus (PUUV) causes many human infections in large parts of Europe and can lead to mild to moderate disease. The bank vole (Myodes glareolus) is the only reservoir of PUUV in Central Europe. A commercial PUUV rapid field test for rodents was validated for bank-vole blood samples collected in two PUUV-endemic regions in Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg). A comparison of the results of the rapid field test and standard ELISAs indicated a test efficacy of 93-95%, largely independent of the origin of the antigens used in the ELISA. In ELISAs, reactivity for the German PUUV strain was higher compared to the Swedish strain but not compared to the Finnish strain, which was used for the rapid field test. In conclusion, the use of the rapid field test can facilitate short-term estimation of PUUV seroprevalence in bank-vole populations in Germany and can aid in assessing human PUUV infection risk.
KW  - Antibody detection
KW  - early warning
KW  - Europe
KW  - hantavirus
KW  - Myodes glareolus
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268816002557
SN  - 0950-2688
SN  - 1469-4409
VL  - 145
IS  - 3
SP  - 434
EP  - 439
PB  - Cambridge Univ. Press
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Reil, Daniela
A1  - Rosenfeld, Ulrike M.
A1  - Imholt, Christian
A1  - Schmidt, Sabrina
A1  - Ulrich, Rainer G.
A1  - Eccard, Jana
A1  - Jacob, Jens
T1  - Puumala hantavirus infections in bank vole populations
BT  - host and virus dynamics in Central Europe
JF  - BMC ecology
N2  - Background

In Europe, bank voles (Myodes glareolus) are widely distributed and can transmit Puumala virus (PUUV) to humans, which causes a mild to moderate form of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, called nephropathia epidemica. Uncovering the link between host and virus dynamics can help to prevent human PUUV infections in the future. Bank voles were live trapped three times a year in 2010–2013 in three woodland plots in each of four regions in Germany. Bank vole population density was estimated and blood samples collected to detect PUUV specific antibodies.

Results

We demonstrated that fluctuation of PUUV seroprevalence is dependent not only on multi-annual but also on seasonal dynamics of rodent host abundance. Moreover, PUUV infection might affect host fitness, because seropositive individuals survived better from spring to summer than uninfected bank voles. Individual space use was independent of PUUV infections.

Conclusions

Our study provides robust estimations of relevant patterns and processes of the dynamics of PUUV and its rodent host in Central Europe, which are highly important for the future development of predictive models for human hantavirus infection risk
KW  - Myodes glareolus
KW  - Population dynamics
KW  - Puumala virus seroprevalence
KW  - Space use
KW  - Survival
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-017-0118-z
SN  - 1472-6785
VL  - 17
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -