For more than two years, Douglass, a biologist at Montana Tech, has been examining what brings deer mice into Montana houses, barns and outbuildings, where the likelihood of spreading hantavirus to humans is far greater than in the field. Characterized by flu-like symptoms, hantavirus is a rare and highly fatal respiratory disease that can be avoided.
Humans can catch hantavirus from deer mice urine, droppings, saliva or nesting materials.
Since the first recorded U.S. outbreak in 1993, Douglass estimates only 200 people have been infected with the disease at a mortality rate of 40 percent. UV rays kill the virus outdoors. Most people who get hantavirus have been in dusty old buildings. Mont. The buildings have holes in each side, a grid on the floor and fluorescent dust at every entry. The dust coats the rodents so researchers can count the squares the mice visit.