The Veterinary Clinic as a Sentinel Node for Hantavirus Surveillance: A Korean Perspective on Closing the Reservoir-Recognition Gap

This paper argues that the reservoir-recognition gap exposed by the May 2026 MV Hondius hantavirus cluster — in which an Andes virus outbreak originated from a province of Argentina with no prior recorded case — is structural rather than incidental, and that a low-cost remedy already exists within the infrastructure of small-animal veterinary practice. The paper proposes the small-animal veterinary clinic as an under-utilized sentinel node capable of capturing chronic environmental signals of rodent-borne zoonotic risk. Three lines of evidence support the proposal: companion animals function as environmental bridges that translocate rodent material and generate observable indicators; the veterinary consultation routinely captures household environment, occupational exposure, and outdoor activity data that human primary care rarely records; and the veterinary hospital itself occupies the environmental niche where rodent-borne pathogens circulate, making structured biosecurity audits a continuous surveillance datum. Korea, as the historical origin of hantavirus research and the host of a dense veterinary clinic network with ongoing Hantaan and Seoul virus circulation, is positioned as a natural pilot site. The paper sets out concrete recommendations and an implementation roadmap.

Author: Bae Jae Seok, DVM, is a clinical veterinarian based in the Republic of Korea (approximately 28 years in practice) and the founder of One Health Analytics, LLC (Wilmington, Delaware, USA). Member of the Korean Veterinary Medical Association (KVMA) and the Gyeonggi Veterinary Medical Association (GVMA). Completed the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Epidemiology in Public Health Practice specialization.