Morganne Igoe
Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
E. Joe Moran
Department of Ecology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Theresa R. Sheets
Department of Mathematics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Jeff DeSalu
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Colleen B. Jonsson
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry, U. of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN
Suzanne Lenhart
Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, Knoxville, TN
Robert D. Owen
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX Centro para el Desarrollo de Investigación Científica, Asunción, Paraguay
Megan A. Rúa
Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, OH
Many rodent-borne hantaviruses are zoonotic pathogens that can cause disease in humans through inhalation of aerosolized rodent excreta. To evaluate the prevalence of Jaborá virus (JABV) over time within its rodent reservoir, Akodon montensis, we formulated a mathematical model with multiple rodent age classes and unique infection class progression features. We then parameterized the model with data collected from a survey of JABV harbored by Akodon montensis in the Mbaracayú Reserve in Paraguay. Our model incorporates three types of infection over the lifetime of the rodent as well as a recovered class. A new feature of the model allows transition from the latent to the persistently-infected class. With a more complete age and infection structure, we are better able to identify the driving forces of epidemiology of hantaviruses in rodent populations.
