Global Health Infectious Disease Research Program, Department of Global Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2011 Sep;85(3):421-5. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2011.11-0006.
Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is endemic throughout most of the eastern United States. Although it is transmitted year round in Florida, transmission elsewhere is seasonal. The mechanism that enables EEEV to overwinter in seasonal foci remains obscure. In previous field studies, early season EEEV activity was detected in mosquito species that feed primarily upon ectothermic hosts, suggesting that reptiles and amphibians might represent overwintering reservoir hosts for EEEV. To determine if this might be possible, two commonly fed upon amphibian and reptile species were evaluated as hosts for the North American subtype I strain of EEEV. Neither amphibian species was a competent host. However, circulating viremias were detected in both reptile species examined. Hibernating infected garter snakes remained viremic after exiting hibernation. These data suggest that snakes may represent an overwintering host for North American EEEV.
东部马脑炎病毒（EEEV）在美国东部大部分地区流行。尽管在佛罗里达州全年都有传播，但其他地方的传播是季节性的。使 EEEV 能够在季节性疫源地越冬的机制仍不清楚。在以前的实地研究中，在主要以冷血宿主为食的蚊子物种中检测到了早期季节的 EEEV 活动，这表明爬行动物和两栖动物可能是 EEEV 的越冬储存宿主。为了确定这是否可能，评估了两种常见的被两栖动物和爬行动物食用的物种作为北美的 I 型亚组 EEEV 的宿主。这两种两栖动物都不是有效的宿主。然而，在所检查的两种爬行动物中都检测到了循环病毒血症。冬眠感染的束带蛇在冬眠结束后仍保持病毒血症。这些数据表明，蛇可能是北美的 EEEV 的越冬宿主。
