High Prevalence of Sin Nombre Virus in Rodent Populations, Central Utah: A Consequence of Human Disturbance?

摘要

Our study site was the West Tintic Mountains, Jericho, Utah, 39°57' N, 112°22' W. We trapped on May 29 to 31, July 10 to 12, and October 7 to 9, 1999. Previous research (3) indicated woodrats (Neotoma lepida) were reservoirs for SNV; therefore, we concentrated our trapping efforts at woodrat middens. Middens (2 m diam) are structures of thousands of sticks built by woodrats and serve as nesting sites for a variety of small rodents, including deer mice (4,5). Each night of the 3-night trapping session, we set ~3 live traps baited with oats, peanut butter, and cotton at each of ~40 middens.