Age-related effects of chronic hantavirus infection on female host fecundity

1. Pathogens often cause detrimental effects to their hosts and, consequently, may influence host population dynamics that may, in turn, feed back to pathogen transmission dynamics. Understanding fitness effects of pathogens upon animal host populations can help to predict the risks that zoonotic pathogens pose to humans. 2. Here we determine whether chronic infection by Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) affects important fitness-related traits, namely the probability of breeding, reproductive effort and mother and offspring condition, in the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). Using 9 years empirical data in a PUUV endemic area in Central Finland, we found differences between reproductive characteristics of PUUV-infected and uninfected female bank voles. 3. Young infected females had a significantly higher, and old individuals lower, likelihood of reproducing than uninfected animals during the middle of the breeding season. The implication is that PUUV infection may have long-term deleterious effect...

1. 病原体通常会对宿主产生有害影响，并进而影响宿主种群动态，而宿主种群动态又会反过来反馈作用于病原体的传播动态。解析病原体对动物宿主种群的适合度效应，有助于预测人畜共患病病原体对人类构成的风险。2. 本研究旨在探究普马拉汉坦病毒（Puumala hantavirus, PUUV）慢性感染是否会影响棕背䶄（Myodes glareolus）中关键的与适合度相关的性状，具体包括繁殖概率、繁殖投入以及母体与后代的体况。我们利用芬兰中部普马拉汉坦病毒流行区长达9年的实证数据，发现感染PUUV与未感染PUUV的雌性棕背䶄在繁殖特征上存在差异。3. 在繁殖季中期，感染病毒的年轻雌性个体的繁殖概率显著高于未感染个体，而年长个体的繁殖概率则低于未感染个体。这表明PUUV感染可能会产生长期的有害影响……