Estudios ecológicos de roedores reservorios en zonas rurales de la provincia de Buenos Aires: hacia la identificación de áreas de riesgo de infección por hantavirus.

BILENCA DAVID; PAULA PADULA; PABLO TETA; REGINO CAVIA; FERNANDO MIÑARRO; ISABEL GÓMEZ VILLAFAÑE; PAULA MARTÍNEZ; SERGIO MIGUEL; EDUARDO PASQUINELLI,; ANALÍA ANDRADE; EMILIANO MUSCHETTO; MARÍA SOLEDAD FERNÁNDEZ; MARÍA BUSCH

Anales de la Fundación Alberto J. Roemmers

Lugar: ; Año: 2005 vol. 16 p. 15 - 22

The main goals of this project are 1) to contribute in the determination of the rodent species which act as reservoirs of pathogenic forms of hantaviruses which have not been identified yet at Buenos Aires Province, Argentina (AND Cent Buenos Aires y AND Cent La Plata), and 2) to analyze the possible influence of different agricultural practices on the abundance and distribution of these rodent populations. We performed 4 rodent samplings and caught nearly 300 individuals at some of the locallities where human cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome have been reported. Each rodent captured was tested in the lab for IgG antibody to AND hantavirus; but only one of the 5 species caught (Akodon azarae ) showed seropositive values (RT-PCR and sequenciation techniques where performed on some of these indiividuals showing that their viral genome belonged to Pergamino hantavirus). Rodent sampligs in agroecosystems showed that there where fewer rodents in crops managed under no tillage system than those managed under the conventional system. Thus, the current expansion of the no tillage system -especially of soy bean- in the agroecosytems of the pampean region may have consequences on the composition and abundances of rodent species at both ecosystem and regional scales.