Experimental infections of wild bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from nephropatia epidemica endemic and non-endemic regions revealed slight differences in Puumala virological course and immunological responses.

In Europe, the occurrence of nephropathia epidemica (NE), a human disease caused by Puumala virus (PUUV), exhibits considerable geographical heterogeneity despite the continuous distribution of its reservoir, the bank vole Myodes glareolus. To better understand the causes of this heterogeneity, wild voles sampled in two adjacent NE endemic and non-endemic regions of France were infected experimentally with PUUV. The responses of bank voles to PUUV infection, based on the levels of anti-PUUV IgG and viral RNA, were compared.

Microevolution of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) at neutral and immune-related genes during multiannual dynamic cycles: Consequences for Puumala hantavirus epidemiology.

Understanding how host dynamics, including variations of population size and dispersal, may affect the epidemiology of infectious diseases through ecological and evolutionary processes is an active research area. Here we focus on a bank vole (Myodes glareolus) metapopulation surveyed in Finland between 2005 and 2009. Bank vole is the reservoir of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV), the agent of nephropathia epidemica (NE, a mild form of hemorrhagic fever with renal symptom) in humans.