Urbanization and Disease Emergence: Dynamics at the Wildlife–Livestock–Human Interface

An excellent recent review by Hasselle et al., (2016) argues that understanding the form and function of the wildlife-livestock-human interfaces could provide clues on how to mitigate risks of disease emergence.

That shifting focus from the pathogen to the processes underlying emergence and also from single pathogen studies to multi-pathogen studies might facilitate rapid detection of pathogen emergence.

They further point out that anthropogenic influence on ecological systems dictate the level of risk of zoonotic disease emergence as compared to wildlife and domestic animal reservoirs.

From these findings we could certainly conclude that urbanization, especially in developing countries, could be propagating disease emergence especially where we have such intimate wildlife-livestock-human interfaces. Further probing for establishment of “One Health” surveillance systems.

Access the full paper here: 

Hassell, J. M., Begon, M., Ward, M. J., & Fèvre, E. M. (2016). Urbanization and Disease Emergence: Dynamics at the Wildlife–Livestock–Human Interface. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2016.09.012

How different interfaces interact and drivers propagate disease emergence; Image source: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2016.09.012