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Monitoring killer mice from space
Date:2/14/2011

p> To find the best vegetation indices, the researchers looked for correlations between vegetation and the numbers of trapped and infected mice. To see how long it took for mice to respond, they tested for correlations at various time lags: 0.3 years, 1 year and 1.3 years after the satellite images were taken.

All the vegetation indices were significantly correlated with mouse population. The best predictors of mouse populations were two greenness indices named the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI). For both indices, the strongest correlations were for mouse population booms 1 year and 1.3 years after surges in plant growth stemming from snow and rainfall.

"You can think of it as a kind of air drop of food for the mice," says Cova. "It's rained and suddenly there's just so much food that they're rich. They get fat, population density goes up, and about a year-and-a-half later population peaks."

After vegetation growth spurts, the fraction of mice that carried hantavirus stayed relatively constant, but the absolute number of infected mice increased along with the mouse population. More infected mice mean more opportunities for humans to get sick, so mouse population size indicates risk to humans.

The new study indicates people are at greatest risk of catching hantavirus a little over a year after peaks in plant growth, and it pinpoints the best methods for measuring those peaks. This should allow researchers to create risk maps showing where and when outbreaks are likely to occur.

Cova says 2004 and 2005 were really wet years. The vegetation indices showed lots of plant growth in those years, and the number of mice peaked the year after that. Later, the mouse food ran out and their population crashed. The results are consistent with earlier findings showing an increase in hantavirus infections the year after the heavy rains of the 1991-92 El Nino, a quasi-periodic
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Contact: Lee J. Siegel
leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu
801-581-8993
University of Utah
Source:Eurekalert  

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