Dynamics of viral index infections in novel hosts

Nardus Mollentze; Daniel G. Streicker; Pablo R. Murcia; Katie Hampson; Roman Biek

Although one might expect body temperature to be a phylogenetically conserved trait, we found The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.09.033928 doi: bioRxiv preprint disease progression, we found no evidence that the body mass of inoculated species or its 282 interaction with dose affects the duration of incubation or clinical periods (Figure 2A) . The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.09.033928 doi: bioRxiv preprint aim to utilize doses closer to those of natural exposures. Following cross-species transmission, 344 rabies virus shows increased virulence (i.e., more rapid death) in more distantly related species, to 345 the point that opportunities for transmission are likely to be markedly reduced. At the same time, 346 a mismatch in host physiological features (including features not strongly correlated with 347 phylogeny, such as body temperature) can alter both infectivity and disease progression, with 348 implications for onward transmission. Thus, the picture that emerges is one of a potential virulence 349 mismatch in index infections, that may explain why -despite having the ability to infect all 350 mammals and frequent involvement in cross-species transmission events -rabies virus remains 351 restricted to a relatively small number of species-specific maintenance cycles. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.09.033928 doi: bioRxiv preprint