Effects Of Sin Nombre Virus On The Immunocompetence And Rate Of Co-infection With Bartonella Of Peromyscus Maniculatus

Sin Nombre virus (SNV) is a strain of hantavirus common in the southwestern US that causes severe illness in humans.  Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), the primary reservoir for SNV, retain life-long infections, but show few outward symptoms of disease.   It is unknown whether chronic infection with SNV impacts the ability of deer mice to respond to other immune challenges. This is significant because immuncompromised deer mice are more likely to shed intact SNV and thus, are more likely to infect humans.  Our objectives are to determine whether deer mice infected with SNV are more likely to become infected with Bartonella, a bacterial pathogen that is endemic in wild rodents. Similar to SNV, Bartonella has low pathogenicity, but requires that deer mice mount a chronic, low-level immune response post infection. As part of this study, we are conducting a mark-recapture study in which we live-trap deer mice monthly from April to November. Upon capture, we collect blood samples from deer mice and test these samples for both SNV and Bartonella. We will then determine the extent to which SNV and Bartonella infections are correlated. This research will ultimately improve our ability to predict human patterns of infection with zoonotic pathogens.