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. 2018 Jan 12;18(1):37.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-017-2827-5.

Landscape and rodent community composition are associated with risk of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in two cities in China, 2006-2013

Hong Xiao  1   2 , Xin Tong  3   4 , Ru Huang  3   4 , Lidong Gao  5 , Shixiong Hu  5 , Yapin Li  6 , Hongwei Gao  7 , Pai Zheng  8 , Huisuo Yang  6 , Zheng Y X Huang  9 , Hua Tan  10 , Huaiyu Tian  11
Affiliations

Landscape and rodent community composition are associated with risk of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in two cities in China, 2006-2013

Hong Xiao et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a rodent-borne disease caused by hantaviruses. Landscape can influence the risk of hantavirus infection for humans, mainly through its effect on rodent community composition and distribution. It is important to understand how landscapes influence population dynamics for different rodent species and the subsequent effect on HFRS risk.

Methods: To determine how rodent community composition influenced human hantavirus infection, we monitored rodent communities in the prefecture-level cities of Loudi and Shaoyang, China, from 2006 to 2013. Land use data were extracted from satellite images and rodent community diversity was analyzed in 45 trapping sites, in different environments. Potential contact matrices, determining how rodent community composition influence HFRS infection among different land use types, were estimated based on rodent community composition and environment type for geo-located HFRS cases.

Results: Apodemus agrarius and Rattus norvegicus were the predominant species in Loudi and Shaoyang, respectively. The major risk of HFRS infection was concentrated in areas with cultivated land and was associated with A. agrarius, R. norvegicus, and Rattus flavipectus. In urban areas in Shaoyang, Mus musculus was related to risk of hantavirus infection.

Conclusions: Landscape features and rodent community dynamics may affect the risk of human hantavirus infection. Results of this study may be useful for the development of HFRS prevention initiatives that are customized for regions with different geographical environments.

Keywords: Hantavirus infection; Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome; Landscape; Rodent community composition.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The present study was reviewed and approved by the research institutional review board of the Hunan Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this study, all the patient medical data analyzed were anonymized for the consideration of confidentiality, only aggregated data were used in the data analysis and no personal information has been used. The whole rodent trapping campaign obtained new samples specifically for this study and was validated by the Animal Ethics Committee of the Hunan CDC. Because the methods did not include animal experimentation, it was not necessary to obtain an animal ethics license. Furthermore, none of the rodent species investigated in the present study are protected in China and none of the species captured are included in the China Species Red List.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

We have read and understood BMC Infectious Diseases policy on declaration of interests and declare that we have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Land use and location of trapping sites in the study area, the prefecture-level cities of Loudi and Shaoyang
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Visualized coefficient matrix showing the relationships among rodent community composition, land use types and HFRS occurrence in (a) Loudi, (b) Shaoyang. The coefficient values are color coded from blue (low values) to red (high values)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distribution of rodent species and HFRS cases in Loudi, 2006–2013. a Proportion of each rodent species, (b) Proportion of HFRS cases among different land use types
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Number of rodents trapped and HFRS cases reported in (a) Loudi, (b) Shaoyang
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Distribution of rodent species and HFRS cases in Shaoyang, 2006–2013. a Proportion of each rodent species, (b) Proportion of HFRS cases among different land use types
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Predicted and observed HFRS occurrence probability among different land use types in Loudi and Shaoyang, 2012–2013. The HFRS occurrence probability is predicted by Eq. 1
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Scatterplot showing the predicted and observed HFRS occurrence probabilities. The HFRS occurrence probability is predicted by Eq. 1
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