Environmental conditions for Jamestown Canyon virus correlated with population-level resource selection by white-tailed deer in a suburban landscape

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 10; p. e0223582
• Main Authors: Hollis-Etter, Karmen M, Montgomery, Robert A, Etter, Dwayne R, Anchor, Christopher L, Chelsvig, James E, Warner, Richard E, Grimstad, Paul R, Lovin, Diane D, Godsey, Jr, Marvin S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 07-10-2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Animals; Biology and Life Sciences; Bunyaviridae Infections - epidemiology; Bunyaviridae Infections - transmission; Bunyaviridae Infections - virology; Canyons; Care and treatment; Climate; Criteria; Deer; Deer - blood; Deer - virology; Diagnosis; Disease; Disease hot spots; Disease Reservoirs; Disease Vectors; Earth Sciences; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Ecosystem; Encephalitis; Encephalitis Virus, California - pathogenicity; Environmental conditions; Environmental quality; Epidemiology; Forest reserves; Habitats; Illinois; Landscape; Mapping; Maximum likelihood estimation; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mortality; Mosquitoes; Natural resources; Odocoileus virginianus; Parameter estimation; Pathogenic microorganisms; Pathogens; Precipitation; Ranking; Risk factors; Rivers; Serologic Tests - veterinary; Trends; Vectors (Biology); Viruses; Weight; West Nile virus; Wetlands; White-tailed deer; Zoonoses; Illinois; Cook County Illinois; Indiana; United States > US; Chicago Illinois; California; Michigan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223582

Suburban landscapes can alter spatial patterns by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and increase animal contact with vectors, pathogens, and humans. Close-contact relationships at a landscape level can have broad implications for disease epidemiology. From 1995-1999, we captured and radio-collared 41 deer in two suburban forest preserves in Chicago, Illinois. We collected blood to determine if animals were seronegative or seropositive for Jamestown Canyon virus and tracked deer movements within suburban habitats. We developed utilization distributions at the population-level and evaluated resource selection for seronegative and seropositive deer. We used maximum likelihood estimation for model selection via Akaike information criterion and then restricted maximum likelihood estimation to attain unbiased estimates of the parameters in the top-ranking models. The top-ranking model describing the resource selection of seronegative deer received almost the full weight of evidence (Akaike information criterion ωi = 0.93), and included the proportion of wetlands, precipitation in year t, and an interaction of the proportion of wetlands and precipitation in year t. The top-ranking model describing resource selection of seropositive deer received the full weight of evidence (Akaike information criterion ωi = 1.00). The model included distance to nearest populated place, distance to nearest river, length of road in each grid cell, precipitation in year t, and an interaction of the length of road in each grid cell and precipitation in year t. These results are valuable for mapping the spatial configuration of hotspots for Jamestown Canyon virus and could be used to educate local residents and recreationalists to reduce human exposure.