Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases

Keesing, Felicia; Belden, Lisa K.; Daszak, Peter; Dobson, Andrew; Harvell, C. Drew; Holt, Robert D.; Hudson, Peter J.; Jolles, Anna E.; Jones, Kate E.; Mitchell, Charles E.; Myers, Samuel S.; Bogich, Tiffany L.; Ostfeld, Richard S.

doi:10.1038/nature09575

Cited by 1,626 publications

(1,575 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…W ildlife and plant diseases can reduce biodiversity, disrupt ecosystem services and threaten human health [1][2][3] . White-nose syndrome (WNS), a highly pathogenic infectious disease caused by the cryophilic fungus Geomyces destructans, has emerged in North American Vespertilionid bats, and is currently spreading [4][5][6][7] throughout the Eastern United States and Canada.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate

et al. 2012

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Wildlife and plant diseases can reduce biodiversity, disrupt ecosystem services and threaten human health. Emerging pathogens have displayed a variety of spatial spread patterns due to differences in host ecology, including diffusive spread from an epicentre (West Nile virus), jump dispersal on a network (foot-and-mouth disease), or a combination of these (Sudden oak death). White-nose syndrome is a highly pathogenic infectious disease of bats currently spreading across North America. Understanding how bat ecology influences this spread is crucial to management of infected and vulnerable populations. Here we show that white-nose syndrome spread is not diffusive but rather mediated by patchily distributed habitat and large-scale gradients in winter climate. Simulations predict rapid expansion and infection of most counties with caves in the contiguous United States by winter 2105-2106. Our findings show the unique pattern of white-nose syndrome spread corresponds to ecological traits of the host and suggest hypotheses for transmission mechanisms acting at the local scale.

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confidence: 99%

Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate

et al. 2012

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“…The concept of the dilution effect predicts that a high proportion of noncompetent reservoirs/hosts (i.e., so‐called dead ends) occurring in diverse animal communities reduces disease risk by, for example, reducing encounter rates of competent hosts, thereby reducing transmission risk among these (Ostfeld & Keesing, 2000; Schmidt & Ostfeld, 2001). High biodiversity is therefore expected to contribute to ecosystem and human health (Keesing et al., 2010). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dampening of population cycles in voles affects small mammal community structure, decreases diversity, and increases prevalence of a zoonotic disease

Ecke

Angeler

Магнуссон

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Long‐term decline and depression of density in cyclic small rodents is a recent widespread phenomenon. These observed changes at the population level might have cascading effects at the ecosystem level. Here, we assessed relationships between changing boreal landscapes and biodiversity changes of small mammal communities. We also inferred potential effects of observed community changes for increased transmission risk of Puumala virus (PUUV) spread, causing the zoonotic disease nephropatica epidemica in humans. Analyses were based on long‐term (1971–2013) monitoring data of shrews and voles representing 58 time series in northern Sweden. We calculated richness, diversity, and evenness at alpha, beta, and gamma level, partitioned beta diversity into turnover (species replacement) and nestedness (species addition/removal), used similarity percentages (SIMPER) analysis to assess community structure, and calculated the cumulated number of PUUV‐infected bank voles and average PUUV prevalence (percentage of infected bank voles) per vole cycle. Alpha, beta, and gamma richness and diversity of voles, but not shrews, showed long‐term trends that varied spatially. The observed patterns were associated with an increase in community contribution of bank vole (Myodes glareolus), a decrease of gray‐sided vole (M. rufocanus) and field vole (Microtus agrestis) and a hump‐shaped variation in contribution of common shrew (Sorex araneus). Long‐term biodiversity changes were largely related to changes in forest landscape structure. Number of PUUV‐infected bank voles in spring was negatively related to beta and gamma diversity, and positively related to turnover of shrews (replaced by voles) and to community contribution of bank voles. The latter was also positively related to average PUUV prevalence in spring. We showed that long‐term changes in the boreal landscape contributed to explain the decrease in biodiversity and the change in structure of small mammal communities. In addition, our results suggest decrease in small mammal diversity to have knock‐on effects on dynamics of infectious diseases among small mammals with potential implications for disease transmission to humans.

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“…In some cases, it is simply a “numbers game”: urbanization and other forms of human modification to the landscape can alter the number of species potentially involved in pathogen dilution or transmission (Keesing et al. 2010) or the population sizes or densities of competent hosts or vectors, which leads to a concomitant change in contact rates and pathogen transmission potential (Bradley and Altizer 2007; Acosta‐Jamett et al. 2011; Shapiro et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do not feed the wildlife: associations between garbage use, aggression, and disease in banded mongooses (Mungos mungo)

Flint

Hawley

Alexander

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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SummaryUrbanization and other human modifications of the landscape may indirectly affect disease dynamics by altering host behavior in ways that influence pathogen transmission. Few opportunities arise to investigate behaviorally mediated effects of human habitat modification in natural host–pathogen systems, but we provide a potential example of this phenomenon in banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), a social mammal. Our banded mongoose study population in Botswana is endemically infected with a novel Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex pathogen, M. mungi, that primarily invades the mongoose host through the nasal planum and breaks in the skin. In this system, several study troops have access to human garbage sites and other modified landscapes for foraging. Banded mongooses in our study site (N = 4 troops, ~130 individuals) had significantly higher within‐troop aggression levels when foraging in garbage compared to other foraging habitats. Second, monthly rates of aggression were a significant predictor of monthly number of injuries in troops. Finally, injured individuals had a 75% incidence of clinical tuberculosis (TB) compared to a 0% incidence in visibly uninjured mongooses during the study period. Our data suggest that mongoose troops that forage in garbage may be at greater risk of acquiring TB by incurring injuries that may allow for pathogen invasion. Our study suggests the need to consider the indirect effects of garbage on behavior and wildlife health when developing waste management approaches in human‐modified areas.

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Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases

Cited by 1,626 publications

References 66 publications

Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate

Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate

Dampening of population cycles in voles affects small mammal community structure, decreases diversity, and increases prevalence of a zoonotic disease

Do not feed the wildlife: associations between garbage use, aggression, and disease in banded mongooses (Mungos mungo)

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