Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia

Urbanization is rapidly transforming much of Southeast Asia, altering the structure and function of the landscape, as well as the frequency and intensity of the interactions between people, animals, and the environment. In this study, we explored the impact of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk...

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Main Authors: Kim R., Blasdell, Serge, Morand, Susan G. W., Laurance, Stephen L, Doggett, Amy, Hahs, Kelly, Trinh, David, Perera, Cadhla, Firth
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PNAS 2022
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Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/40352/1/Rats%20and%20the%20city%20-%20Copy.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/40352/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2112341119
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112341119
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Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Language: English
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spelling my.unimas.ir.403522022-11-07T03:22:28Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/40352/ Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia Kim R., Blasdell Serge, Morand Susan G. W., Laurance Stephen L, Doggett Amy, Hahs Kelly, Trinh David, Perera Cadhla, Firth RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine Urbanization is rapidly transforming much of Southeast Asia, altering the structure and function of the landscape, as well as the frequency and intensity of the interactions between people, animals, and the environment. In this study, we explored the impact of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk by simultaneously characterizing changes in the ecology of animal reservoirs (rodents), ectoparasite vectors (ticks), and pathogens across a gradient of urbanization in Kuching, a city in Malaysian Borneo. We sampled 863 rodents across rural, developing, and urban locations and found that rodent species diversity decreased with increasing urbanization—from 10 species in the rural location to 4 in the rural location. Notably, two species appeared to thrive in urban areas, as follows: the invasive urban exploiter Rattus rattus (n = 375) and the native urban adapter Sundamys muelleri (n = 331). R. rattus was strongly associated with built infrastructure across the gradient and carried a high diversity of pathogens, including multihost zoonoses capable of environmental transmission (e.g., Leptospira spp.). In contrast, S. muelleri was restricted to green patches where it was found at high densities and was strongly associated with the presence of ticks, including the medically important genera Amblyomma, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes. Our analyses reveal that zoonotic disease risk is elevated and heterogeneously distributed in urban environments and highlight the potential for targeted risk reduction through pest management and public health messaging. PNAS 2022 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/40352/1/Rats%20and%20the%20city%20-%20Copy.pdf Kim R., Blasdell and Serge, Morand and Susan G. W., Laurance and Stephen L, Doggett and Amy, Hahs and Kelly, Trinh and David, Perera and Cadhla, Firth (2022) Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 119 (39). pp. 1-11. ISSN 0027-8424 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2112341119 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112341119
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
spellingShingle RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Kim R., Blasdell
Serge, Morand
Susan G. W., Laurance
Stephen L, Doggett
Amy, Hahs
Kelly, Trinh
David, Perera
Cadhla, Firth
Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia
description Urbanization is rapidly transforming much of Southeast Asia, altering the structure and function of the landscape, as well as the frequency and intensity of the interactions between people, animals, and the environment. In this study, we explored the impact of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk by simultaneously characterizing changes in the ecology of animal reservoirs (rodents), ectoparasite vectors (ticks), and pathogens across a gradient of urbanization in Kuching, a city in Malaysian Borneo. We sampled 863 rodents across rural, developing, and urban locations and found that rodent species diversity decreased with increasing urbanization—from 10 species in the rural location to 4 in the rural location. Notably, two species appeared to thrive in urban areas, as follows: the invasive urban exploiter Rattus rattus (n = 375) and the native urban adapter Sundamys muelleri (n = 331). R. rattus was strongly associated with built infrastructure across the gradient and carried a high diversity of pathogens, including multihost zoonoses capable of environmental transmission (e.g., Leptospira spp.). In contrast, S. muelleri was restricted to green patches where it was found at high densities and was strongly associated with the presence of ticks, including the medically important genera Amblyomma, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes. Our analyses reveal that zoonotic disease risk is elevated and heterogeneously distributed in urban environments and highlight the potential for targeted risk reduction through pest management and public health messaging.
format Article
author Kim R., Blasdell
Serge, Morand
Susan G. W., Laurance
Stephen L, Doggett
Amy, Hahs
Kelly, Trinh
David, Perera
Cadhla, Firth
author_facet Kim R., Blasdell
Serge, Morand
Susan G. W., Laurance
Stephen L, Doggett
Amy, Hahs
Kelly, Trinh
David, Perera
Cadhla, Firth
author_sort Kim R., Blasdell
title Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia
title_short Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia
title_full Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia
title_fullStr Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia
title_full_unstemmed Rats and the city : Implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in Southeast Asia
title_sort rats and the city : implications of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk in southeast asia
publisher PNAS
publishDate 2022
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/40352/1/Rats%20and%20the%20city%20-%20Copy.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/40352/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2112341119
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112341119
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