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Implications of predator species richness in terms of zoonotic spillover transmission of filoviral hemorrhagic fevers in Africa

Chang, T.; Cho, S.-i.; Min, K.-D.

2023-02-16 epidemiology
10.1101/2023.02.12.23285832 medRxiv
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Previous studies found that higher species richness of predators could reduce spillover risks of rodent-borne diseases. However, the effects on bat-borne diseases remains to be investigated. To this regard, we evaluated associations between predator species richness and the spillover events of Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus, the highly pathogenic bat-borne diseases in Africa. Stacked species distribution model approach was used to estimate predator species richness and Logistic regression analyses that considered spatiotemporal autocorrelations were conducted. The results showed that the third quartile (OR = 0.02, 95% CI 0.00-0.84) and fourth quartile (0.07, 0.00-0.42) of species richness of Strigiformes and the third quartile (0.15, CI 0.01-0.73) and fourth quartile (0.53, 0.03-0.85) of Colubridae showed significantly lower risks of spillover transmission of Ebolavirus. However, no significant association was found between predator species richness and Marburgvirus spillover. The results support a possible effect of predator species diversity on spillover suppression.

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