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The effects of demographic, social, and environmental characteristics on pathogen prevalence in wild fields across a gradient of urbanization
Citation
Lewis, JS and Logan, KA and Alldredge, MW and Carver, S and Bevins, SN and Lappin, M and VandeWoude, S and Crooks, KR, The effects of demographic, social, and environmental characteristics on pathogen prevalence in wild fields across a gradient of urbanization, PLoS One, 12, (11) Article 0187035. ISSN 1932-6203 (2017) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2017 Lewis et al. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187035
Abstract
Transmission of pathogens among animals is influenced by demographic, social, and environmental factors. Anthropogenic alteration of landscapes can impact patterns of disease dynamics in wildlife populations, increasing the potential for spillover and spread of emerging infectious diseases in wildlife, human, and domestic animal populations. We evaluated the effects of multiple ecological mechanisms on patterns of pathogen exposure in animal populations. Specifically, we evaluated how ecological factors affected the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii (Toxoplasma), Bartonella spp. (Bartonella), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and feline calicivirus (FCV) in bobcat and puma populations across wildland-urban interface (WUI), low-density exurban development, and wildland habitat on the Western Slope (WS) and Front Range (FR) of Colorado during 2009–2011. Samples were collected from 37 bobcats and 29 pumas on the WS and FR. As predicted, age appeared to be positively related to the exposure to pathogens that are both environmentally transmitted (Toxoplasma) and directly transmitted between animals (FIV). In addition, WS bobcats appeared more likely to be exposed to Toxoplasma with increasing intraspecific space-use overlap. However, counter to our predictions, exposure to directly-transmitted pathogens (FCV and FIV) was more likely with decreasing space-use overlap (FCV: WS bobcats) and potential intraspecific contacts (FIV: FR pumas). Environmental factors, including urbanization and landscape covariates, were generally unsupported in our models. This study is an approximation of how pathogens can be evaluated in relation to demographic, social, and environmental factors to understand pathogen exposure in wild animal populations.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | FIV, puma, bobcat, disease |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Evolutionary biology |
| Research Field: | Host-parasite interactions |
| Objective Division: | Health |
| Objective Group: | Public health (excl. specific population health) |
| Objective Field: | Disease distribution and transmission (incl. surveillance and response) |
| UTAS Author: | Carver, S (Dr Scott Carver) |
| ID Code: | 124337 |
| Year Published: | 2017 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 4 |
| Deposited By: | Zoology |
| Deposited On: | 2018-02-19 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-05-09 |
| Downloads: | 39 View Download Statistics |
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