Hantavirus was found in high levels in multiple rodent species across the Pacific Northwest. While this isn’t incredibly alarming news, some mainstream media outlets are reporting that the virus could pose a higher risk than initially thought.

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According to a report by Fox News, in summer 2023, researchers collected samples from 189 deer mice, voles, and chipmunks at eight farms and two forest sites. Researchers from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine found unexpectedly high levels of Sin Nombre virus (SNV), which is the strain most strongly linked to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), among local rodent populations.

Nearly 30% of sampled rodents showed evidence of prior exposure, and about 10% had active infections, according to the study press release. The rodents that tested positive were from both agricultural environments (farms) and natural settings (wilderness). –Fox News

This does not mean that humans are more or less likely to contract the disease.

“We were surprised both by how common the virus was locally and by how little data existed for the Northwest,” said Stephanie Seifert, the study’s corresponding author and principal investigator of the Molecular Ecology of Zoonotic and Animal Pathogens lab in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, in the press release.

“We’re really just beginning to understand how widespread and complex this virus is in rodent populations here.”

The Sin Nombre strain is different from the Andes virus, the strain linked to the recent outbreak on board the MV Hondius cruise ship. The Andes virus is the only hantavirus that is capable of spreading between people through close, prolonged contact.

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“It is important to conduct research that expands our understanding of how the virus spreads,” she said. “Studies like this – which obtain and compare viral genetic sequences across regions and animals – help clarify how the virus moves geographically and between species.”