# Reptiles and Amphibians as Reservoir and Overwintering Hosts for Arboviruses

> **NIH NIH R21** · COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $190,000

## Abstract

Project Summary
Identifying maintenance, amplifying and overwintering hosts is one of critical factors in
understanding and ultimately controlling vector-borne diseases. There is considerable
evidence from the literature and our own preliminary studies that reptiles and
amphibians infected with various arboviruses develop a viremia of sufficient magnitude
to likely infect mosquitoes. Further, and especially when environmental temperature is
reduced, viremia in these ectothermic vertebrates can persist for weeks or months,
suggesting a potential role in overwintering. Despite these intriguing hints of the
importance of ectothermic vertebrates in the ecology of arbovirus infections, we lack a
broad understanding of the pathogenesis of such host-virus interactions, particularly
under varying environmental conditions. The recent emergence in the New World of
chikungunya and Zika viruses provides further impetus for an expanded evaluation of
non-conventional hosts for arboviruses. Our long-term objective is to determine whether
reptiles and amphibians are important in natural arboviral transmission cycles, but
realizing that goal will be logistically difficult without a much better understanding of
which virus-hosts are worth evaluating. Our approach is based on first testing an array
of diverse arboviruses for their ability to infect and induce viremia in multiple ectothermic
species in order to better define the possibilities for specific virus-host interactions. In
conjunction with these exploratory studies, we will expand upon preliminary studies to
characterize the influence of low temperature on duration and recrudescence of viremia
for Zika and two other viruses in selected reptiles and amphibians. Finally, we will
exploit an artificial ecosystem to address the ultimate question of whether reptiles and
amphibians can actually serve as hosts important to arbovirus transmission cycles.
Collectively, these studies will greatly enhance our understanding of the potential
importance ectothermic hosts in arbovirus transmission and set the stage for future
studies to evaluate such interactions in the natural world.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9848489
- **Project number:** 5R21AI137954-02
- **Recipient organization:** COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard Arnold Bowen
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $190,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-10 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9848489

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9848489, Reptiles and Amphibians as Reservoir and Overwintering Hosts for Arboviruses (5R21AI137954-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9848489. Licensed CC0.

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