Evaluation of habitat requirements of small rodents and effectiveness of an ecologically-based management in a hantavirus-endemic natural protected area in Argentina

VADELL, VICTORIA; GARCÍA ERIZE, FRANCISCO; GÓMEZ VILLAFAÑE, ISABEL

Integrative Zoology

Wiley online library

Año: 2016 vol. 12 p. 77 - 94

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is a severe cardio pulmonary diseasetransmitted to humans by sylvan rodents found in natural and ruralenvironments. Diseasetransmission is closely linked to the ecology of animal reservoirs and abioticfactors such as habitat characteristics, season, or climatic conditions. The main goals of this research were: todetermine the biotic and abiotic factors affecting richness and abundance ofrodent species at different spatial scales, to evaluate different methodologiesfor studying population of small rodents, and to describe and analyze anecologically-based rodent management experience in a highly touristic area. Afour-year study of small rodent ecology was conducted between April 2007 andAugust 2011 in the most relevant habitats of El Palmar National Park,Argentina. Management included a wide range of control and prevention measuresincluding poisoning, culling and habitat modification. A total of 172individuals of five species were captured with a trapping effort of 13860traps-nights (1.24 individuals/100 traps-nights). Five rodent species werecaptured including two hantavirus-host species, Oligoryzomys nigripes and Akodonazarae. O. nigripes, host of ahantavirus which is pathogenic in humans, was the most abundant species and theonly one found in all the studied habitats. Our results are inconsistent with thedilution effect hypothesis. This study demonstrates that sylvan rodent species, including thehantavirus-host species, have distinct local habitat selection and temporalvariation patterns in abundance, which may influence the risk of human exposureto hantavirus and may have practical implications for disease transmission as wellas for reservoir management.