Mayaro virus (MAYV), the etiologic agent of Mayaro fever, leads patients to severe myalgia and arthralgia, which can have a major impact on public health in all the countries where the virus circulates. The emergence and dissemination of new viruses have led the scientific community to develop new in vivo models that can help in the fight against new diseases. So far, mice have been the most used animal model in studies with MAYV and have proved to be an adequate model for recapitulating several aspects of the disease observed in humans. Mice are widely used in in vivo research and, therefore, are well known in the scientific community, which has allowed for different strains to be investigated in the study of MAYV. In this review, we summarize the main studies with MAYV using mice as an experimental model and discuss how they can contribute to the advancement of the understanding of its pathogenesis and the development of new drugs and vaccines.
Keywords: Mayaro; animal model; drugs and vaccines; public health.