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Abstract Sin Nombre virus (SNV) is a zoonotic virus that is highly pathogenic to humans. The deer mouse,Peromyscus maniculatus, is the primary host of SNV, and SNV prevalence inP. maniculatusis an important indicator of human disease risk. Because the California Channel Islands contain permanent human settlements, receive hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and can have extremely high densities ofP. maniculatus, surveillance for SNV in islandP. maniculatusis important for understanding the human risk of zoonotic disease. Despite the importance of surveillance on these heavily utilized islands, SNV prevalence (i.e. the proportion ofP. maniculatusthat test positive to antibodies to SNV) has not been examined in the last 13–27 years. We present data on 1,610 mice sampled for four consecutive years (2014–2017) on five of the California Channel Islands: East Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, and San Clemente. Despite historical data indicating SNV‐positive mice on San Clemente and Santa Catalina, we detected no SNV‐positive mice on these islands, suggesting very low prevalence or possible loss of SNV. Islands historically free of SNV (East Anacapa, Santa Barbara, and San Nicolas) remained free of SNV, suggesting that rates of pathogen introduction from other islands and/or the mainland are low. Although continued surveillance is warranted to determine whether SNV establishes on these islands, our work helps inform current human disease risk in these locations and suggests that SNV prevalence on these islands is currently very low.
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This content will become publicly available on August 13, 2025
Selecting sites for strategic surveillance of zoonotic pathogens: a case study in Panamá
Abstract Surveillance and monitoring of zoonotic pathogens is key to identifying and mitigating emerging public health threats. Surveillance is often designed to be taxonomically targeted or systematically dispersed across geography, however, those approaches may not represent the breadth of environments inhabited by a host, vector, or pathogen, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of pathogen dynamics in their natural reservoirs and environments. As a case study on the design of pathogen surveillance programs, we assess how well 20 years of small mammal surveys in Panamá have sampled available environments and propose a multistep approach to selecting survey localities in the future. We use >8,000 georeferenced mammal specimen records, collected as part of a long-term hantavirus surveillance program, to test the completeness of country-wide environmental sampling. Despite 20 years of surveillance, our analyses identified a few key environmental sampling gaps. To refine surveillance strategies, we selected a series of core historically sampled localities, supplemented with additional environmentally distinct sites to more completely represent Panama’s environments. Based on lessons learned through decades of surveillance, we propose a series of recommendations to improve strategic sampling for zoonotic pathogen surveillance.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2308707
- PAR ID:
- 10538339
- Publisher / Repository:
- bioRxiv
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Institution:
- bioRxiv
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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