Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

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dc.contributor.authorMuylaert, Renata L
dc.contributor.authorDavidson, Ben
dc.contributor.authorNgabirano, Alex
dc.contributor.authorKalema-Zikusoka, Gladys
dc.contributor.authorMacGregor, Hayley
dc.contributor.authorLloyd-Smith, James O
dc.contributor.authorFayaz, Ahmed
dc.contributor.authorKnox, Matthew A
dc.contributor.authorHayman, David T S
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-15T06:18:02Z
dc.date.available2023-08-15T06:18:02Z
dc.date.issued2021-11-24
dc.description.abstractAbstract Cross-species transmission of pathogens is intimately linked to human and environmental health. With limited healthcare and challenging living conditions, people living in poverty may be particularly susceptible to endemic and emerging diseases. Similarly, wildlife is impacted by human influences, including pathogen sharing, especially for species in close contact with people and domesticated animals. Here we investigate human and animal contacts and human health in a community living around the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda. We used contact and health survey data to identify opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission, focusing mostly on people and the endangered mountain gorilla. We conducted a survey with background questions and self-reported diaries to investigate 100 participants' health, such as symptoms and behaviours, and contact patterns, including direct contacts and sightings over a week. Contacts were revealed through networks, including humans, domestic, peri-domestic, and wild animal groups for 1) contacts seen in the week of background questionnaire completion, and 2) contacts seen during the diary week. Participants frequently felt unwell during the study, reporting from one to 10 disease symptoms at different intensity levels, with severe symptoms comprising 6.4% of the diary records and tiredness and headaches the most common symptoms. After human-human contacts, direct contact with livestock and peri-domestic animals were the most common. The contact networks were moderately connected and revealed a preference in contacts within the same taxon and within their taxa groups. Sightings of wildlife were much more common than touching. However, despite contact with wildlife being the rarest of all contact types, one direct contact with a gorilla with a timeline including concerning participant health symptoms was reported. When considering all interaction types, gorillas mostly exhibited intra-species contact, but were found to interact with five other species, including people and domestic animals. Our findings reveal a local human population with recurrent symptoms of illness in a location with intense exposure to factors that can increase pathogen transmission, such as direct contact with domestic and wild animals and proximity among animal species. Despite significant biases and study limitations, the information generated here can guide future studies, such as models for disease spread and One Health interventions.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis study was supported by the Royal Society Te Aparangi (Royal Society of New Zealand) [contracts: RDF-MAU1701 ("From individuals to populations: multi-scale approaches to pathogen emergence"); MAU1503 ("Unpacking infection spillover dynamics")] and by Bryce Carmine and Anne Carmine (ne´e Percival), through the Massey University Foundation, in the form of symptoms of illness in a location with intense exposure to factors that can increase pathogen transmission, such as direct contact with domestic and wild animals and proximity among animal species. Despite significant biases and study limitations, the information generated here can guide future studies, such as models for disease spread and One Health interventions. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic, now the ’poster child’ of the impact of an emerging infectious disease, is suspected to have originated from a virus circulating in wild mammals [1]. Ebola virus disease, HIV/AIDS, and SARS are all infamous emerging infectious diseases with origins in wildlife [2–4]. In fact, most human infections have their origins in wild or domestic animals [5]. Therefore, despite providing many benefits to health—such as overall well-being and services, including medicinal herbs and other natural resources [6–8]—natural areas can also contain hazards to human health, particularly when living in their proximity is linked to social inequality and low-socio-economic status. In low to middle-income countries, and particularly in tropical regions, people also still suffer from a high burden of numerous and treatable endemic diseases. These infections may be human-adapted (e.g., malaria [9]) or zoonotic (e.g. leptospirosis [10]). Contacts between humans and other animals can, therefore, pose hazards to human health, but the converse is also true [11]. Human behaviour has contributed to species extinction rates much higher than pre-Anthropocene levels [12]. Habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, species invasion, wildlife trade, and overharvesting [13–15] can negatively impact ecosystems, leading to the declining health of many species [16]. In some cases, this may be in the form of increased risk of pathogen transmission, with many examples where infectious diseases have contributed to the decline of endangered wildlife species [17, 18]. Disease risk is especially important in non-human great apes, such as the endangered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, four subspecies), bonobos (Pan paniscus), the Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), and the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei). These are all endangered or critically endangered species [19] threatened by disease, poaching, and habitat loss. Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks in Central Africa have killed thousands of both people and apes, and these outbreaks have decimated the critically endangered Eastern Lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) population, reaching 90% mortality in some areas [20]. Analyses of human EVD outbreaks suggest that land-use changes, particularly forest fragmentation, may be increasing the risk of these outbreaks [21, 22]. Human population density is high in many African regions that share an interface with non-human great apes’ habitat, such as in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) and the Virunga Volcanoes. Habitat degradation and human encroachment—the land bordering BINP has an average population density of 300–400 people/km2 [23], much higher than the average for Uganda (229 people/km2 , [24])—and ecotourism increase human-wildlife contact. Communities around BINP have had to deal with civil unrest associated with the displacement of human populations by the creation of the park [25]. Precarious livelihoods are common in human populations living around the park. Yet, the area is also an ecotourism destination with frequent visits to habituated groups of apes [26]. These factors, along with high inbreeding levels [27], probably increase the frequency and severity of disease outbreaks in mountain gorillas [28, 29]. PLOS ONE Health and animal contacts around Bwindi forest PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254467 November 24, 2021 2 / 29 funds to DTSH. This study was also funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation in the form of funds to JOL-S [DEB-1557022].en_US
dc.identifier.citationMuylaert, Renata L., Ben Davidson, Alex Ngabirano, et al. 'Community Health and Human-Animal Contacts on the Edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda', PloS One, vol. 16/no. 11, (2021), pp. e0254467.en_US
dc.identifier.issnISSN 1932-6203
dc.identifier.issnEISSN 1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/9137
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.subjectpathogens transmission, environmental health, wildlife, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Ugandaen_US
dc.titleCommunity health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Ugandaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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