Loading...
Impact of joint interactions with humans and social interactions with conspecifics on the risk of zooanthroponotic outbreaks among wildlife populations
Balasubramaniam, Krishna N. Aiempichitkijkarn, Nalina Marty, Pascal R. Beisner, Brianne Bliss‐Moreau, Eliza Arlet, Malgorzata E Atwill, Edward McCowan, Brenda
Balasubramaniam, Krishna N.
Aiempichitkijkarn, Nalina
Marty, Pascal R.
Beisner, Brianne
Bliss‐Moreau, Eliza
Arlet, Malgorzata E
Atwill, Edward
McCowan, Brenda
Editors
Other contributors
Affiliation
Epub Date
Issue Date
2022-07-08
Submitted date
Alternative
Abstract
Pandemics caused by pathogens that originate in wildlife highlight the importance of understanding the behavioral ecology of disease outbreaks at human-wildlife interfaces. Specifically, the relative effects of human-wildlife and wildlife-wildlife interactions on disease outbreaks among wildlife populations in urban and peri-urban environments remain unclear. We used social network analysis and epidemiological Susceptible-Infected-Recovered models to simulate zooanthroponotic outbreaks, through wild animals’ joint propensities to co-interact with humans, and their social grooming of conspecifics. On 10 groups of macaques (Macaca spp.) in peri-urban environments in Asia, we collected behavioral data using event sampling of human-macaque interactions within the same time and space, and focal sampling of macaques’ social interactions with conspecifics and overall anthropogenic exposure. Model-predicted outbreak sizes were related to structural features of macaques’ networks. For all three species, and for both anthropogenic (co-interactions) and social (grooming) contexts, outbreak sizes were positively correlated to the network centrality of first-infected macaques. Across host species and contexts, the above effects were stronger through macaques’ human co-interaction networks than through their grooming networks, particularly for rhesus and bonnet macaques. Long-tailed macaques appeared to show more intraspecific variation in these effects. Our findings suggest that among wildlife in anthropogenically-impacted environments, the structure of their aggregations around anthropogenic factors makes them more vulnerable to zooanthroponotic outbreaks than their social structure. The global features of these networks that influence disease outbreaks, and their underlying socio-ecological covariates, need further investigation. Animals that consistently interact with both humans and their conspecifics are important targets for disease control.
Citation
Balasubramaniam, K.N., Aiempichitkijkarn, N., Kaburu, S.S.K., Marty, P.R., Beisner, B.A., Bliss-Moreau, E., Arlet, M.A., Atwill, E. and McCowan, B. (2022) Impact of joint interactions with humans and social interactions with conspecifics on the risk of zooanthroponotic outbreaks among wildlife populations. Scientific Reports, 12, 11600,
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15713-6
Publisher
Journal
Research Unit
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Additional Links
Type
Journal article
Language
en
Description
© 2022 The Author. Published by Springer Nature. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15713-6
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2045-2322