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Volume 14, Number 6—June 2008
Dispatch

Land Use and West Nile Virus Seroprevalence in Wild Mammals

Andrés Gómez*Comments to Author , A. Marm Kilpatrick†‡, Laura D. Kramer§, Alan P. Dupuis§, Joseph G. Maffei§, Scott J. Goetz¶, Peter P. Marra#**, Peter Daszak†, and A. Alonso Aguirre††
Author affiliations: *Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; †The Consortium for Conservation Medicine, New York; ‡University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA; §New York State Department of Health, Slingerlands, New York; ¶Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA; #Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, USA; **National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, USA; ††Wildlife Trust, New York;

Main Article

Table 1

West Nile virus in wild mammals at 7 sites in Washington, DC, and Maryland, United States*

Capture site UI Age % WNV seroprevalence (no. samples)
Tamias striatus Sciurus carolinensis Didelphis virginiana Peromyscus leucopus Procyon lotor Rattus norvegicus
Baltimore, MD 91.2 J 0 (3)
A 64 (10) 50 (2)
Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC† 75.5 J 20 (11) 50 (2)
J‡ 43 (7)
A 52 (23) 50 (2) 50 (6)
A‡ 100 (6)
Fort Dupont Park, Washington, DC 38.8 J 100 (2) 20 (5)
A 75 (8) 60 (5) 50 (2)
Takoma Park, MD§ 50.4 J 0 (2) 71 (7)
J‡ 50 (6)
A 65 (20) 50 (6) 100 (2)
A‡ 100 (5)
Bethesda, MD¶ 41.5 J 0 (4) 100 (1)
A 22 (12) 67 (13)
Rock Creek Park, Rockville, MD# 27.8 J 0 (5) 0 (1)
A 16 (6) 30 (20) 0 (3) 100 (3)
SERC** 16.2 J 50 (4) 0 (11) 0 (1)
A 100 (1) 25 (4) 0 (6) 0 (1)

*Mammals caught from June 14, 2005, through September 17, 2005, except where noted. WNV, West Nile virus; UI, urbanization index; A, adult; J, juvenile.
†Also sampled house mouse, Mus musculus (1 WNV-positive adult, 1 WNV -negative juvenile).
‡Samples from April 2006.
§Also sampled big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus (1 WNV-negative adult), little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus (1 WNV-positive adult).
¶Also sampled little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus (1 WNV-positive adult).
#Also sampled groundhog, Marmota monax (1 WNV-negative adult).
**SERC, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD; also sampled domestic cat (1 WNV-negative juvenile), groundhog, Marmota monax (1 WNV-negative adult, 1 WNV-positive adult), eastern cottontail rabbit, Sylvilagus floridanus (1 WNV-negative adult).

Main Article

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