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Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts

Influenza A virus (IAV) is known to circulate among human and animal reservoirs, yet there are few studies that address the potential for urban rodents to carry and shed IAV. Rodents are often used as influenza models in the lab, but the few field studies that have looked for evidence of IAV in rode...

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Autores principales: Cummings, Charles O., Hill, Nichola J., Puryear, Wendy B., Rogers, Benjamin, Mukherjee, Jean, Leibler, Jessica H., Rosenbaum, Marieke H., Runstadler, Jonathan A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8519512/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34660611
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00036
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author Cummings, Charles O.
Hill, Nichola J.
Puryear, Wendy B.
Rogers, Benjamin
Mukherjee, Jean
Leibler, Jessica H.
Rosenbaum, Marieke H.
Runstadler, Jonathan A.
author_facet Cummings, Charles O.
Hill, Nichola J.
Puryear, Wendy B.
Rogers, Benjamin
Mukherjee, Jean
Leibler, Jessica H.
Rosenbaum, Marieke H.
Runstadler, Jonathan A.
author_sort Cummings, Charles O.
collection PubMed
description Influenza A virus (IAV) is known to circulate among human and animal reservoirs, yet there are few studies that address the potential for urban rodents to carry and shed IAV. Rodents are often used as influenza models in the lab, but the few field studies that have looked for evidence of IAV in rodents have done so primarily in rural areas following outbreaks of IAV in poultry. This study sought to assess the prevalence of IAV recovered from wild Norway rats in a dense urban location (Boston). To do this, we sampled the oronasal cavity, paws, and lungs of Norway rats trapped by the City of Boston’s Inspectional Services from December 2016 to September 2018. All samples were screened by real-time, reverse transcriptase PCR targeting the conserved IAV matrix segment. A total of 163 rats were trapped, 18 of which (11.04%) were RT-PCR positive for IAV in either oronasal swabs (9), paw swabs (9), both (2), or lung homogenates (2). A generalized linear model indicated that month and geographic location were correlated with IAV-positive PCR status of rats. A seasonal trend in IAV-PCR status was observed with the highest prevalence occurring in the winter months (December-January) followed by a decline over the course of the year, reaching its lowest prevalence in September. Sex and weight of rats were not significantly associated with IAV-PCR status, suggesting that rodent demography is not a primary driver of infection. This pilot study provides evidence of the need to further investigate the role that wild rats may play as reservoirs or mechanical vectors for IAV circulation in urban environments across seasons.
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spelling pubmed-85195122021-10-15 Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts Cummings, Charles O. Hill, Nichola J. Puryear, Wendy B. Rogers, Benjamin Mukherjee, Jean Leibler, Jessica H. Rosenbaum, Marieke H. Runstadler, Jonathan A. Front Ecol Evol Article Influenza A virus (IAV) is known to circulate among human and animal reservoirs, yet there are few studies that address the potential for urban rodents to carry and shed IAV. Rodents are often used as influenza models in the lab, but the few field studies that have looked for evidence of IAV in rodents have done so primarily in rural areas following outbreaks of IAV in poultry. This study sought to assess the prevalence of IAV recovered from wild Norway rats in a dense urban location (Boston). To do this, we sampled the oronasal cavity, paws, and lungs of Norway rats trapped by the City of Boston’s Inspectional Services from December 2016 to September 2018. All samples were screened by real-time, reverse transcriptase PCR targeting the conserved IAV matrix segment. A total of 163 rats were trapped, 18 of which (11.04%) were RT-PCR positive for IAV in either oronasal swabs (9), paw swabs (9), both (2), or lung homogenates (2). A generalized linear model indicated that month and geographic location were correlated with IAV-positive PCR status of rats. A seasonal trend in IAV-PCR status was observed with the highest prevalence occurring in the winter months (December-January) followed by a decline over the course of the year, reaching its lowest prevalence in September. Sex and weight of rats were not significantly associated with IAV-PCR status, suggesting that rodent demography is not a primary driver of infection. This pilot study provides evidence of the need to further investigate the role that wild rats may play as reservoirs or mechanical vectors for IAV circulation in urban environments across seasons. 2019-03-14 2019-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8519512/ /pubmed/34660611 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00036 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Article
Cummings, Charles O.
Hill, Nichola J.
Puryear, Wendy B.
Rogers, Benjamin
Mukherjee, Jean
Leibler, Jessica H.
Rosenbaum, Marieke H.
Runstadler, Jonathan A.
Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts
title Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts
title_full Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts
title_fullStr Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts
title_full_unstemmed Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts
title_short Evidence of Influenza A in Wild Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston, Massachusetts
title_sort evidence of influenza a in wild norway rats (rattus norvegicus) in boston, massachusetts
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8519512/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34660611
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00036
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