Meeting Abstract

7.5  Tuesday, Jan. 4  Transmission dynamics among host populations DIZNEY, L.*; VARNER, J.; ZOLKA, T.; DEARING, M.D.; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City; Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City l.dizney@utah.edu

Knowledge of the transmission of pathogens in wildlife is critical to an understanding of host-pathogen interactions. We sought to test the existing hypothesis that Sin Nombre virus (SNV) is transmitted among deer mice through aggressive contacts by conducting direct observations of deer mice in nature. We predicted that deer mice infected with SNV would have greater incidence of aggressive or risk taking behaviors. We observed deer mouse behaviors in a free-ranging population for 4 nights every 6-8 weeks from May through September in 2009. All rodents were first marked with passive integrative transponder (PIT) tags and blood samples were collected for SNV analysis. Behaviors were then observed at 9 surveillance stations consisting of foraging arenas, infrared cameras and PIT tag readers. From 2000 hours of video, 182 deer mice were observed at foraging arenas for a total of 59 hours, mostly feeding alone. The total amount of time that deer mice were involved in interactions was only 49 minutes. SNV-infected deer mice engaged significantly more often in risk taking behaviors than expected. We defined risk taking behaviors as any behavior that would increase the probability of intraspecific encounters, such as increased visits or time on foraging arenas, traveling more distance each night or spending more time in the open rather than under sagebrush cover. SNV-infected deer mice also were significantly more aggressive, and made up a higher percentage of the highest risk-taking deer mice than expected. The results suggest that SNV-infected deer mice behave differently than uninfected deer mice. The initial analysis suggests that aggressive and risky behaviors are the cause of SNV infection rather than the result of infection.