Transmission dynamics of an emerging infectious disease in wildlife through host reproductive cycles

• Published in: The ISME Journal Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 244 - 251
• Main Authors: Uchii, Kimiko, Telschow, Arndt, Minamoto, Toshifumi, Yamanaka, Hiroki, Honjo, Mie N, Matsui, Kazuaki, Kawabata, Zen'ichiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-02-2011; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/208/1348; 631/326/596/2563; 692/699/255/2514; Animals; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Breeding seasons; Carps; Communicable Diseases, Emerging - epidemiology; Communicable Diseases, Emerging - transmission; Disease transmission; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Fish Diseases - epidemiology; Fish Diseases - transmission; Gastrointestinal Contents - virology; Habitats; Herpesviridae - isolation & purification; Herpesviridae - physiology; Herpesviridae Infections - epidemiology; Herpesviridae Infections - transmission; Infectious diseases; Life Sciences; Microbial Ecology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Original; original-article; Pathogens; Reproduction - physiology; Reproductive cycle; Seasons; Seawater - virology; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology; Spring; Temperature; Water temperature; Wildlife; cyprinid herpes virus 3; seroprevalence; breeding habitat; CyHV-3; common carp
• ISSN: 1751-7362; 1751-7370
• DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2010.123

Emerging infectious diseases are major threats to wildlife populations. To enhance our understanding of the dynamics of these diseases, we investigated how host reproductive behavior and seasonal temperature variation drive transmission of infections among wild hosts, using the model system of cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) disease in common carp. Our main findings were as follows: (1) a seroprevalence survey showed that CyHV-3 infection occurred mostly in adult hosts, (2) a quantitative assay for CyHV-3 in a host population demonstrated that CyHV-3 was most abundant in the spring when host reproduction occurred and water temperature increased simultaneously and (3) an analysis of the dynamics of CyHV-3 in water revealed that CyHV-3 concentration increased markedly in breeding habitats during host group mating. These results indicate that breeding habitats can become hot spots for transmission of infectious diseases if hosts aggregate for mating and the activation of pathogens occurs during the host breeding season.