Biodiversity changes in African forests and Emerging Infectious Diseases: should we worry?

由于森林砍伐和肉类贸易的加剧，非洲热带森林的生物多样性正在急剧下降。与此同时，在野生小型哺乳动物中有天然宿主的新出现的传染病爆发频率增加。生物多样性变化对这些EID对人类的溢出风险的影响尚不清楚。较高的生物多样性可能会降低小型哺乳动物群落的传播率（“稀释效应”），或可能会促进传播率（“放大效应”）。生物多样性的变化也可能与影响与野生动物接触率的人类行为变化有关。BIODIV-AFREID将在刚果和科特迪瓦的不同森林地点探索这些关系。该联盟由欧洲和非洲的合作伙伴组成，他们具有强大的动物学、生态学、生物医学、病毒学和人类学专业知识，在非洲实地工作方面具有丰富的经验，并有早期合作的历史。我们将调查一系列病毒病原体，但重点关注两种主要关注的对比EID：猴痘病毒（在各种小型哺乳动物中发现，经常感染人类）和埃博拉病毒（对人类的溢出事件很少，水库尚未确定）。在这些EID已被报道过的地区，我们将选择在森林退化和肉食狩猎的差异，并描述小型哺乳动物群落的生物多样性（WP 1）和病毒的存在和流行在这些社区（WP 2）的网站。这项工作将以新收集的材料以及不同合作伙伴在早期实地工作中收集的大量样本为基础。然后，我们将测试关于稀释和放大效应（WP 3）以及促进溢出到人类的生态和人类学条件（WP 4）的假设。另外两个工作方案包括确保利害关系方参与的活动（工作方案5）和项目协调（工作方案6）。通过BIODIV-AFREID，将更好地了解生物多样性与新传染病出现之间的关系，这些见解可以为更有针对性的保护和公共卫生战略奠定基础。

Biodiversity in Afrotropical forests is declining dramatically due to deforestation and intensified bushmeat trade. At the same time there is an increased frequency of outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases (EID) that have a natural reservoir in wildsmall mammals. The effect of biodiversity changes on the risk of spillover of these EID to humans is not yet clear. Higher biodiversity may reduce transmission rates in the small mammal community (“dilution effect”) or may facilitate it (“amplification effect”). Biodiversity changes may also be associated with changes in human behaviour that affect contact rates with wildlife. BIODIV-AFREID will explore these relations in different forest sites in DR Congo and Côte d'Ivoire. The consortium consists of European and African partners with strong zoological, ecological, biomedical, virological and anthropological expertise, vast experience in field work in Africa and a history of earlier collaborations. We will investigate a range of viral pathogens but with a focus on two contrasting EID that are of major concern: Monkeypoxvirus (found in a variety of small mammals and with frequent human infections) and Ebola virus (with rare spillover events to humans and the reservoir not yet identified with certainty). In areas where these EID have been reported before, we will select sites with differences in forest degradation andbushmeat hunting and describe the biodiversity of small mammal communities (WP1) and the presence and prevalence of the viruses in these communities (WP2). The work will be based on newly collected material as well as considerable amounts of samples that different partners collected during earlier fieldwork. We will then test hypotheses about dilution and amplification effects (WP3) and about the ecological and anthropological conditions that facilitate spillover to humans (WP4). Two additionalWP include activities to ensure stakeholder engagement (WP5) and project coordination (WP6). With BIODIV-AFREID, the relations between biodiversity and emergence of new infectious will be better understood and these insights can form a basis for more targeted conservation and public health strategies.