Abstract
Land-use change can raise the risk of human exposure to zoonotic diseases by increasing abundance of reservoir hosts. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis on the associations between land-use change and the abundance of rodent species in relation to their reservoir status for rodent-borne diseases. Using the PREDICT database, we analyzed 58 case studies comprising 54 species from eight countries. In general, rodent reservoirs were significantly more abundant in modified habitats (anthropogenically altered sites), whereas non-reservoir species were more abundant in non-modified habitats. To our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis that evaluates the response of rodents to land-use change with a focus on the potential implications for epidemiological risks. Our findings give further evidence that land-use change generally impacts biodiversity in ways that might imply higher risk of zoonotic pathogen transmission.
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Funding
This work was supported by FONDECYT 3160037 and CONICYT + PAI Convocatoria Nacional de Subvención a la Instalación en la Academia 2018 No. PAI77180009. HM was supported by a CONACyT MSc scholarship and PAEP-UNAM.
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Mendoza, H., Rubio, A.V., García-Peña, G.E. et al. Does land-use change increase the abundance of zoonotic reservoirs? Rodents say yes. Eur J Wildl Res 66, 6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-019-1344-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-019-1344-9