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Cases of human hantavirus disease have been reported in Chile since 1995, most of them in people living in rural and periurban areas. We conducted a peridomestic study of small mammals to evaluate the relationships between the presence of rodents with antibodies to Andes virus confirmed human cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in southcentral Chile. The results of 20 sampled sites, which involved the capture of 272 mice over an 18-month period, showed the occurrence of 10 small mammal species, of which Oligoryzomys longicaudatus was the only seropositive species for hantavirus, with an intra-specific serologic rate of 10.4%.
Received June 11, 2003. Accepted for publication November 19, 2003.
Acknowledgments: We thank A. Charrier, M. Ehrenfeld, G. Lobos, and P. Godoy for field and laboratory work. We also thank the Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero for trapping permits in periurban and rural areas, and the Ministry of Health and local health services who provided us with information on sampling sites.
Financial support: This work was supported by the grant Hantavirus Ecology and Disease in Chile (NIH-ICIDR 1 U19 AI-45452-01) to the University of New Mexico and to the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Authors addresses: Fernando Torres-Pérez, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago 6513677, Chile. Jorge Navarrete-Droguett, Rebeca Aldunate, and Marcela Ferrés, Centro de Estudios Médicos, Departamento de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Terry L. Yates, Department of Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM 87131. Gregory J. Mertz, Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 915 Camino de Salud, BRF-323, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001. Pablo A. Vial, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile. Pablo A. Marquet and R. Eduardo Palma, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ecología y Biodiversidad and Departamento de Ecología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago 6513677, Chile.
Reprint requests: R. Eduardo Palma, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago 6513677, Chile, Fax: 56-2-686-2621, E-mail: epalma{at}genes.bio.puc.cl.
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