| rift valley fever virus: a seroepidemiologic study of small terrestrial vertebrates in south africa. | epizootics of rift valley fever (rvf) are often associated with periods of heavy rainfall, which are favorable for mosquito vectors. however, in seasons with normal or low rainfall, enzootic circulation occurs, suggesting the existence of a natural host that can act as a cryptic carrier during interepizootic periods. to confirm the role of heavy rainfall in epizootic circulation, and to identify a possible natural host of rvf virus, serum samples from small terrestrial mammals in the free state ... | 1997 | 9430529 |
| could bats act as reservoir hosts for rift valley fever virus? | the inter-epizootic reservoir host of rift valley fever virus (rvfv) remains unknown, although the namaqua rock rat, aethomys namaquensis, as well as bats have been implicated. bats can be asymptomatically infected with rabies, as well as several arboviruses; the possibility that they can act as host for rvfv therefore exists. to examine this possibility, 350 different samples (brain, liver, salivary glands and brown fat) obtained from 150 bats (comprising seven species) were tested for rvfv ant ... | 1999 | 10396763 |
| host and viral traits predict zoonotic spillover from mammals. | the majority of human emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, with viruses that originate in wild mammals of particular concern (for example, hiv, ebola and sars). understanding patterns of viral diversity in wildlife and determinants of successful cross-species transmission, or spillover, are therefore key goals for pandemic surveillance programs. however, few analytical tools exist to identify which host species are likely to harbour the next human virus, or which viruses can cross species ... | 2017 | 28636590 |
| predicting the global mammalian viral sharing network using phylogeography. | understanding interspecific viral transmission is key to understanding viral ecology and evolution, disease spillover into humans, and the consequences of global change. prior studies have uncovered macroecological drivers of viral sharing, but analyses have never attempted to predict viral sharing in a pan-mammalian context. using a conservative modelling framework, we confirm that host phylogenetic similarity and geographic range overlap are strong, nonlinear predictors of viral sharing among ... | 2020 | 32385239 |