Seasonal hantavirus dynamics in two rodent reservoir species

Hantaviruses circulating in rodent populations are a major issue in public health. It is therefore imperative to understand the effects of host density and population specific demographic factors to estimate the relative contribution of functional groups to the virus transmission within the host population. This might however vary between different host/hantavirus systems. Here we present results that highlight seasonal changes in density dependence and demographic drivers (age, sex, reproductive activity) of acute and persisting han-tavirus infections in the two most common rodent host/hantavirus systems (Bank vole (Myodes glareolus)/ Puumala virus; Common vole (Microtus arvalis)/ Tula vi-rus) in Germany. Trapping of rodents and sampling blood and tissue was conducted between 2010-2013 in four federal states with 3 woodland (Myodes) and 3 grassland (Microtus) replicates per state. There was strong seasonality in the density dependence and the individual proba-bility of acute infections or antibody presence for different functional groups for both species. For M. glareolus, demographics played a significant role during sum-mer and autumn, while for M. arvalis this was restricted to autumn when popula-tions on grassland reached their peak densities. In both systems older individuals and males were associated with higher hantavirus seroprevalence. These results highlight underlying similarities and dissimilarities of species specific hantavirus transmission in different hantavirus/reservoir systems, and the need to consider functional groups in future efforts to understand hantavirus transmission and predict human infection risks.