Seasonal dynamics of the wild rodent faecal virome

Viral discovery studies in wild animals often rely on cross‐sectional surveys at a single time point. As a result, our understanding of the temporal stability of wild animal viromes remains poorly resolved. While studies of single host–virus systems indicate that host and environmental factors influence seasonal virus transmission dynamics, comparable insights for whole viral communities in multiple hosts are lacking. Utilizing noninvasive faecal samples from a long‐term wild rodent study, we characterized viral communities of three common European rodent species (Apodemus sylvaticus, A. flavicollis and Myodes glareolus) living in temperate woodland over a single year. Our findings indicate that a substantial fraction of the rodent virome is seasonally transient and associated with vertebrate or bacteria hosts. Further analyses of one of the most common virus families, Picornaviridae, show pronounced temporal changes in viral richness and evenness, which were associated with concurrent ..., Full methods are detailed in the manuscript (see preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.09.479684). An abridged version is provided below describing the data. 
Study population: Wild rodents were trapped and sampled over a one-year period (January 2017 to January 2018) in Wytham Woods, a 385-ha mixed deciduous woodland near Oxford, UK. Three common rodent species are regularly caught at this site: two species of Apodemus mice (Apodemus sylvaticus and A. flavicollis, with A. sylvaticus more abundant) and the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). One night of trapping on a single c. 2.4ha trapping grid was carried out approximately fortnightly year-round. Small Sherman traps (baited with six peanuts, a slice of apple, and sterile cotton wool for bedding material) were set at dusk and collected at dawn the following day. Newly captured individuals were PIT-tagged for unique identification. Faecal samples were collected from the bedding material with sterilized tweezers and frozen at -80°C w..., All data table can be opened with Excel or R, and all code can be opened in R Studio.Â