Zoonotic Host Richness in the Global Wildland-Urban Interface
© 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
| Publié dans: | Global change biology. - 1999. - 31(2025), 2 vom: 01. Feb., Seite e70039 |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Autres auteurs: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article en ligne |
| Langue: | English |
| Publié: |
2025
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| Accès à la collection: | Global change biology |
| Sujets: | Journal Article disease ecology land‐use change spillover urbanization wildland–urban interface zoonotic disease |
| Résumé: | © 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Where human settlements abut or intermix with wildlands, people may encounter animals that host zoonotic pathogens which can spillover to cause human disease. Known as the wildland-urban interface (WUI), this zone occupies around 5% of the Earth's surface and is home to 3.5 billion people. The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrated the importance of understanding risk factors for disease among an increasingly urbanized population. However, the contribution of the WUI to zoonotic disease risk is poorly understood. Here, we show that low-level host richness occurs throughout most of the global WUI, and 20% of the human WUI population live in zones of particularly high zoonotic potential, where more than 20 host species could occur. Zones of high zoonotic potential are concentrated in low-middle-income countries (LMICs) across equatorial Africa, Brazil, Central America, and Southeast Asia where vulnerability is further elevated by widespread poverty, inadequate housing, and lack of easily accessible healthcare. Three of four people living in WUIs with high host richness (520 million people) are in LMICs. Of this population, 35% (183 million) live in and around cities in West, East, and South Africa. This means that WUI-based populations of LMICs may face the double threat of high zoonotic potential and vulnerability to disease. Our results identify global priorities for monitoring exposure to zoonotic diseases in the rapidly expanding WUI |
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| Description: | Date Completed 05.05.2025 Date Revised 05.05.2025 published: Print Citation Status MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1365-2486 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/gcb.70039 |