and important epidemic and pandemic diseases, focussing on recent outbreaks of high-mortality coronavirus infections and diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world.

The fight against infectious diseases often focuses on epidemics and pandemics, which demand urgent resources and command attention from the health authorities and media. However, the vast majority of deaths caused by infectious diseases occur in endemic zones, particularly in developing countries, placing a disproportionate burden on underfunded health systems and often requiring international interventions. The provision of vaccines and other biologics is hampered not only by the high cost and limited scalability of traditional manufacturing platforms based on microbial and animal cells, but also by challenges caused by distribution and storage, particularly in regions without a complete cold chain. In this review article, we consider the

This study aims to determine whether the application of cattle manure and associated bioturbation by dung beetles and other invertebrates can increase oak seedling establishment in the high biodiversity Mediterranean silvopastoral systems known as “dehesas”, which are comprised of scattered oaks and a grassland layer and are used for livestock rearing. A two-year study was conducted in a representative dehesa in southern Spain. Firstly, the effect of cattle dung pads on acorn consumption by livestock and wild predators was monitored, along with dung beetle abundance and plot bioturbation. Secondly, the indirect effects of bioturbation on acorn burial, acorn predation by rodents and oak seedling establishment were assessed under the condition of livestock exclusion. The results consistently demonstrate a high positive indirect effect of the presence of cattle manure on the persistence of acorns, as well as on seedling establishment, as a result of reduced predation by rodents and improved microhabitat conditions for the acorns and seedlings. These processes were mediated by bioturbation. Tunneler dung beetles, which move a great amount of soil material, were dominant in our records, which suggest their importance for passive acorn burial, without disregarding the influence of other edaphic invertebrates present. We conclude that the presence of cattle manure significantly improves oak seedling establishment in Mediterranean dehesas through the passive burial of acorns by bioturbation, which acts to protect them from predation by rodents, desiccation and other damage. Passive acorn burial by dung beetles and other invertebrates thus emerges as an important ecosystem service that has been little-studied to date. Appropriate rotational management of livestock could therefore contribute to addressing the bottleneck of oak regeneration in Mediterranean dehesas.

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