TY - JOUR
T1 - Epidemiological connectivity between humans and animals across an urban landscape
AU - Hassell, James M.
AU - Muloi, Dishon M.
AU - VanderWaal, Kimberly L.
AU - Ward, Melissa J.
AU - Bettridge, Judy
AU - Gitahi, Nduhiu
AU - Ouko, Tom
AU - Imboma, Titus
AU - Akoko, James
AU - Karani, Maurice
AU - Muinde, Patrick
AU - Nakamura, Yukiko
AU - Alumasa, Lorren
AU - Furmaga, Erin
AU - Kaitho, Titus
AU - Amanya, Fredrick
AU - Ogendo, Allan
AU - Fava, Francesco
AU - Wee, Bryan A.
AU - Phan, Hang
AU - Kiiru, John
AU - Kangethe, Erastus
AU - Kariuki, Sam
AU - Robinson, Timothy
AU - Begon, Michael
AU - Woolhouse, Mark E.J.
AU - Fèvre, Eric M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 the Author(s).
PY - 2023/7/18
Y1 - 2023/7/18
N2 - Urbanization is predicted to be a key driver of disease emergence through human exposure to novel, animal-borne pathogens. However, while we suspect that urban landscapes are primed to expose people to novel animal-borne diseases, evidence for the mechanisms by which this occurs is lacking. To address this, we studied how bacterial genes are shared between wild animals, livestock, and humans (n = 1,428) across Nairobi, Kenya—one of the world’s most rapidly developing cities. Applying a multilayer network framework, we show that low biodiversity (of both natural habitat and vertebrate wildlife communities), coupled with livestock management practices and more densely populated urban environments, promotes sharing of Escherichia coli–borne bacterial mobile genetic elements between animals and humans. These results provide empirical support for hypotheses linking resource provision, the biological simplification of urban landscapes, and human and livestock demography to urban dynamics of cross-species pathogen transmission at a landscape scale. Urban areas where high densities of people and livestock live in close association with synanthropes (species such as rodents that are more competent reservoirs for zoonotic pathogens) should be prioritized for disease surveillance and control.
AB - Urbanization is predicted to be a key driver of disease emergence through human exposure to novel, animal-borne pathogens. However, while we suspect that urban landscapes are primed to expose people to novel animal-borne diseases, evidence for the mechanisms by which this occurs is lacking. To address this, we studied how bacterial genes are shared between wild animals, livestock, and humans (n = 1,428) across Nairobi, Kenya—one of the world’s most rapidly developing cities. Applying a multilayer network framework, we show that low biodiversity (of both natural habitat and vertebrate wildlife communities), coupled with livestock management practices and more densely populated urban environments, promotes sharing of Escherichia coli–borne bacterial mobile genetic elements between animals and humans. These results provide empirical support for hypotheses linking resource provision, the biological simplification of urban landscapes, and human and livestock demography to urban dynamics of cross-species pathogen transmission at a landscape scale. Urban areas where high densities of people and livestock live in close association with synanthropes (species such as rodents that are more competent reservoirs for zoonotic pathogens) should be prioritized for disease surveillance and control.
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2218860120
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2218860120
M3 - Article
C2 - 37450494
AN - SCOPUS:85164759985
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 120
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 29
M1 - e2218860120
ER -