Landscape drives zoonotic malaria prevalence in non-human primates
Zoonotic disease dynamics in wildlife hosts are rarely quantified at macroecological scales due to the lack of systematic surveys. Non-human primates (NHPs) host a zoonotic malaria of public health concern and the main barrier to malaria elimination in Southeast Asia. Understanding of regional infec...
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Published in | eLife Vol. 12 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
eLife Science Publications, Ltd
16.05.2024
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Zoonotic disease dynamics in wildlife hosts are rarely quantified at macroecological scales due to the lack of systematic surveys. Non-human primates (NHPs) host
a zoonotic malaria of public health concern and the main barrier to malaria elimination in Southeast Asia. Understanding of regional
infection dynamics in wildlife is limited. Here, we systematically assemble reports of NHP
and investigate geographic determinants of prevalence in reservoir species. Meta-analysis of 6322 NHPs from 148 sites reveals that prevalence is heterogeneous across Southeast Asia, with low overall prevalence and high estimates for Malaysian Borneo. We find that regions exhibiting higher prevalence in NHPs overlap with human infection hotspots. In wildlife and humans, parasite transmission is linked to land conversion and fragmentation. By assembling remote sensing data and fitting statistical models to prevalence at multiple spatial scales, we identify novel relationships between
in NHPs and forest fragmentation. This suggests that higher prevalence may be contingent on habitat complexity, which would begin to explain observed geographic variation in parasite burden. These findings address critical gaps in understanding regional
epidemiology and indicate that prevalence in simian reservoirs may be a key spatial driver of human spillover risk. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Undefined-3 |
ISSN: | 2050-084X 2050-084X |
DOI: | 10.7554/eLife.88616 |