Models for the Spread of Hantavirus Infection in Rodent Populations
(Linda Allen, Texas Technological University)

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is an emerging disease caused by  viral pathogens known as hantaviruses that are carried by wild rodents.  Although hantaviruses only recently  have been isolated from humans in the United States and western Europe, elsewhere in the world (especially eastern Asia, Africa, and South America) related viruses are major public health problems causing thousands of deaths each year.  It is generally thought that spread from rodents to  humans is through the  virus  shed in rodent urine, feces, and saliva. The role of  rodents as vectors and reservoirs of hantavirus  are currently under investigation. In this presentation, we review some  epizootic models that have been used to study the dynamics of hantavirus in rodents and present some new deterministic and stochastic models. Our new models are based on an SEIR  model which includes males and females. We illustrate how the infection can be maintained  in reservoir and nonreservoir hosts.