Data for: The impact of wildlife and environmental factors on hantavirus infection in host and its translation into human risk

Identifying factors that drive infection dynamics in reservoir host
populations is essential in understanding human risk from
wildlife-originated zoonoses. We studied zoonotic Puumala orthohantavirus
(PUUV) in the host, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus), populations in
relation to the host population, rodent and predator community and
environment-related factors and whether these processes are translated
into human infection incidence. We used 5-year rodent trapping and bank
vole PUUV serology data collected from 30 sites located in 24
municipalities in Finland. We found that PUUV seroprevalence was
negatively associated with the abundance of red foxes, but this process
did not translate into human disease incidence, which showed no
association with PUUV seroprevalence. The abundance of weasels, the
proportion of juvenile bank voles in the host populations and rodent
species diversity were negatively associated with the abundance index of
PUUV-positive bank voles, which, in turn, showed a positive association
with human disease incidence. Our results suggest certain predators, high
proportion of young bank vole individuals and a diverse rodent community,
may reduce PUUV risk for humans through their negative impacts on the
abundance of infected bank voles.