Conditions affecting the timing and magnitude of Hendra virus shedding across pteropodid bat populations in Australia.

ABSTRACT: Understanding infection dynamics in animal hosts is fundamental to managing spillover and emergence of zoonotic infections. Hendra virus is endemic in Australian pteropodid bat populations and can be lethal to horses and humans. However, we know little about the factors driving Hendra virus prevalence in resevoir bat populations, making spillover difficult to predict. We use Hendra virus prevalence data collected from 13 000 pooled bat urine samples across space and time to determine if pulses of prevalence are periodic and synchronized across sites. We also test whether site-specific precipitation and temperature affect the amplitude of the largest annual prevalence pulses. We found little evidence for a periodic signal in Hendra virus prevalence. Although the largest amplitude pulses ten

SUBMITTER: Paez DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5783192 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature