Understanding the relationships between biodiversity and zoonotic diseases is crucial for safeguarding human and animal health. We investigated the diversity-disease relationships using bat communities exposed to coronaviruses (Ghana) and placental and marsupial mammal communities exposed to Trypanosoma infections (Panama) as study systems. Using spatiotemporal variations in species community...
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in humans and livestock, with high zoonotic and epizootic potential based on the high transmissibility between species. Host-Mycobacterium interactions are complex, and despite highly infectious clinical stages, only a fraction of infected hosts contribute to TB transmission. In wildlife, general predictors of TB progression...
Knowledge on potential pathogens in wildlife reservoirs is important for pandemic preparedness. Shrews are a large and phylogenetically old species group, but their virome still remains elusive. We investigated four shrew species (bicolored, greater and lesser with-toothed shrews, Etruscan shrews) from Europe with a metagenomics next-generation sequencing approach.
RNA was extracted from 54...
In Germany, the mosquito-borne flavivirus Usutu virus (USUV) is the causative agent of annually reoccurring epizootics in the avifauna, primarily of blackbirds and owls. USUV was first documented in 2010 in the southwest of Germany in Culex mosquitoes and in 2011 in blackbirds. Ongoing surveillance efforts identified a spread of the virus to the north and east of the country, upon where it...
The two closely related flaviviruses West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV) co-circulate in many European countries including Germany. Both viruses circulate in an enzootic cycle between birds and mosquitoes as biological vectors. In addition, transmission to vertebrate species such as horses and humans is possible. Infections can lead to serious illnesses, and WNV in particular poses a...
In farming, rodents cause crop loss, infrastructure damage and have a high potential to transmit pathogens to humans and livestock. Diseases related to the latter are encephalomyocarditis, leptospirosis and porcine circovirus that can all result in high economic losses. Pathogen transfer could be dependent on rodent density and favoured by frequent contacts between rodents, livestock and...
