engleski

Beech forests as natural foci of Puumala and Dobrava virus in Croatia

Puumala (PUUV) and Dobrava (DOBV) are the main causative viruses of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Croatia. The main rodent reservoirs of hantaviruses in Croatia are the yellow-necked mouse (A. flavicollis), striped field mouse (A. agrarius) and bank vole (M. glareolus). In Croatia European beech (F. sylvaticae) is the tree species with largest areal and distribution over 36% of forest area. Beech forests are mostly found in highland and mountain areas and hosts a large number of small mammal species. For the purpose of this study rodents were captured using snap traps within four year period in beech stands at two different locations with the total of 11 trapping grids. Rodents were screened for hantaviruses using nested RT–PCR. Results show that yellow-necked mouse and bank vole are dominant species in beech forests of Croatia and both make 99 % of total captures. PUUV was detected in 90/181 (50%) bank voles and DOBV in 13/243 (5%) yellow-necked mice. Number of hantavirus positive rodents was positively correlated with their abundance. High abundance of hantavirus positive rodents was found in two years following beech mast. For the same years with increased rodent abundance high number of human HFRS cases was reported which confirms the influence of beech mast on rodent abundance and increasing human cases.

beech forest; rodents; Puumala virus; Dobrava virus; human cases

nije evidentirano