OmniVira

The nexus between forest fragmentation in Africa and Ebola virus disease outbreaks.

Maria Cristina Rulli1 Monia Santini2 David T S Hayman3 Paolo D'Odorico4,5,6
Affiliations 6 institutions
  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
  2. Division on Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services, Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Viterbo, Italy.
  3. Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health Laboratory (mEpiLab), Hopkirk Research Institute, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.
  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
  5. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
  6. National Social Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland, Annapolis, MD, USA.
PMID28195145 DOI10.1038/srep41613 Year2017 Journal Scientific reports Sci Rep Languageeng Statusepublish

Abstract

Tropical forests are undergoing land use change in many regions of the world, including the African continent. Human populations living close to forest margins fragmented and disturbed by deforestation may be particularly exposed to zoonotic infections because of the higher likelihood for humans to be in contact with disease reservoirs. Quantitative analysis of the nexus between deforestation and the emergence of Ebola virus disease (EVD), however, is still missing. Here we use land cover change data in conjunction with EVD outbreak records to investigate the association between recent (2004-2014) outbreaks in West and Central Africa, and patterns of land use change in the region. We show how in these EVD outbreaks the index cases in humans (i.e. spillover from wildlife reservoirs) occurred mostly in hotspots of forest fragmentation.

Supporting text Virus Host Location
Conservation of Natural Resources 4 Disease Outbreaks 170 Ebolavirus 31 Forests 10 Resin Cements 1 Africa 16 Geography 19 Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola 27 Humans 1440 Satellite Imagery 1 Seasons 47 Nexus 1

Evidence records

2 total
Zoonotic Surveillance
1 records · 1 evidence types
Evidence type Reservoir Ecology
1 records
OVE2528 Reservoir Ecology
Key finding

Index human Ebola virus disease cases were spillover events from wildlife reservoirs mainly in hotspots of forest fragmentation in West and Central Africa.

Virus
Ebola virus
Host
human Homo sapiens Natural host
Location
West and Central Africa
Supporting text

Here we use land cover change data in conjunction with EVD outbreak records to investigate the association between recent (2004-2014) outbreaks in West and Central Africa, and patterns of land use change in the region. We show how in these EVD outbreaks the index cases in humans (i.e. spillover from wildlife reservoirs) occurred mostly in hotspots of forest fragmentation.

Method
association of EVD outbreak records with land use and forest fragmentation data
Geographic raw
West and Central Africa
Transmission Evidence
1 records · 1 evidence types
Evidence type Outbreak Investigation
1 records
OVE2529 Outbreak Investigation
Key finding

Ebola virus disease outbreaks between 2004 and 2014 in West and Central Africa were investigated using outbreak records and land cover change data, showing that index human cases originated mainly in hotspots of forest fragmentation.

Virus
Ebola virus
Host
human Homo sapiens Natural host
Location
West and Central Africa
Supporting text

Here we use land cover change data in conjunction with EVD outbreak records to investigate the association between recent (2004-2014) outbreaks in West and Central Africa, and patterns of land use change in the region. We show how in these EVD outbreaks the index cases in humans (i.e. spillover from wildlife reservoirs) occurred mostly in hotspots of forest fragmentation.

Method
analysis of land cover change data | use of EVD outbreak records
Transmission direction
animal-to-human
Geographic raw
West and Central Africa
Outbreak setting
hotspots of forest fragmentation
Outbreak time
2004–2014
Outbreak scale
recent outbreaks in West and Central Africa