Hantavirus: Ecology and Disease in US, Chile, and Panama

OverviewPathogens and Museum CollectionsMSB and HantavirusesSin Nombre Hantavirus (SNV)SNV and Traditional Ecological KnowledgeFurther
Learning

 

The MSB Mammal Collection and the associated tissue collection has grown substantially, adding >250,000 specimens in the past 20 years through a variety of efforts:

  • Collaborations with national and international natural resource and wildlife agencies 
  • Targeted fieldwork supported by NSF, NIH, USDA, and others 
  • Multiple emerging pathogen research partnerships (e.g., CDC, Gorgas Institute, etc) 

Existing mammal specimens, spanning traditional skins to ultra-frozen tissues, aided MSB in becoming an integral partner of pathogen discovery infrastructure. MSB’s earliest pathogen research began with the Sin Nombre Hantavirus (Orthohantavirus  sinnombreense; SNV) outbreak in 1993. Since then, MSB has served as a repository for mammal voucher specimens and tissue samples collected by public health agencies during disease outbreak investigations worldwide, and remains at the forefront of emerging pathogen discovery and monitoring.  

MSB has built international partnerships, such as PICANTE! and the Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA) network. Since 2021, MEPA has brought together a diverse workforce from more than 14 countries to design and implement new ways of monitoring and mitigating emerging zoonotic pathogens through a shared community of practice. MEPA spans public health agencies, pathogen laboratories, wildlife agencies, natural history museums, policy makers, field stations, and others to create more integrated and effective identification, monitoring, mitigation, and prediction of emerging zoonotic pathogens in the Americas. 

MSB also conducts targeted fieldwork at specific sites yearly to monitor how mammals and pathogens are responding to changing conditions; efforts include collaborative surveys in South and Central America.