Metacommunity and phylogenetic structure determine wildlife and zoonotic infectious disease patterns in time and space

• Published in: Ecology and evolution Vol. 5; no. 4; pp. 865 - 873
• Main Authors: Suzán, Gerardo, García‐Peña, Gabriel E., Castro‐Arellano, Ivan, Rico, Oscar, Rubio, André V., Tolsá, María J., Roche, Benjamin, Hosseini, Parviez R., Rizzoli, Annapaola, Murray, Kris A., Zambrana‐Torrelio, Carlos, Vittecoq, Marion, Bailly, Xavier, Aguirre, A. Alonso, Daszak, Peter, Prieur‐Richard, Anne‐Helene, Mills, James N., Guégan, Jean‐Francois
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2015; Wiley Open Access; BlackWell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Animals; Anthropogenic factors; Biodiversity; Biogeography; Colonization; Community; Conservation biology; Disease ecology; Disease transmission; Dispersal; Domestic animals; Ecology; Ecology, environment; Ecosystems; Endangered & extinct species; Epidemics; evolution; Extinction; Health; Human health and pathology; Human influences; Hypotheses; Infectious diseases; Life Sciences; Local communities; metacommunity; Niches; One Health; Outbreaks; Pathogens; phylogenetic structure; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Population; Public health; Species extinction; stochastic event; Studies; Wildlife; Zoonoses; stochastic event; Disease ecology; phylogenetic structure; dispersal; evolution; metacommunity; One Health
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.1404
• ISSN: 2045-7758

The potential for disease transmission at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals and humans has become a major concern for public health and conservation biology. Research in this subject is commonly conducted at local scales while the regional context is neglected. We argue that prevalence of infection at local and regional levels is influenced by three mechanisms occurring at the landscape level in a metacommunity context. First, (1) dispersal, colonization, and extinction of pathogens, reservoir or vector hosts, and nonreservoir hosts, may be due to stochastic and niche‐based processes, thus determining distribution of all species, and then their potential interactions, across local communities (metacommunity structure). Second, (2) anthropogenic processes may drive environmental filtering of hosts, nonhosts, and pathogens. Finally, (3) phylogenetic diversity relative to reservoir or vector host(s), within and between local communities may facilitate pathogen persistence and circulation. Using a metacommunity approach, public heath scientists may better evaluate the factors that predispose certain times and places for the origin and emergence of infectious diseases. The multidisciplinary approach we describe fits within a comprehensive One Health and Ecohealth framework addressing zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks and their relationship to their hosts, other animals, humans, and the environment. A metacommunity framework can help explain the occurrence patterns of diseases by linking the spatial, ecological, and evolutionary relationships between pathogens, hosts (including vectors), and non‐host species.