Agricultural land-uses consistently exacerbate infectious disease risks in Southeast Asia

Hiral A Shah,Jocelyn Elmes,Kris A Murray,Paul Huxley

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12333-z

Hiral A Shah, Jocelyn Elmes + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12333-z

Copy DOI

Abstract

Agriculture has been implicated as a potential driver of human infectious diseases. However, the generality of disease-agriculture relationships has not been systematically assessed, hindering efforts to incorporate human health considerations into land-use and development policies. Here we perform a meta-analysis with 34 eligible studies and show that people who live or work in agricultural land in Southeast Asia are on average 1.74 (CI 1.47–2.07) times as likely to be infected with a pathogen than those unexposed. Effect sizes are greatest for exposure to oil palm, rubber, and non-poultry based livestock farming and for hookworm (OR 2.42, CI 1.56–3.75), malaria (OR 2.00, CI 1.46–2.73), scrub typhus (OR 2.37, CI 1.41–3.96) and spotted fever group diseases (OR 3.91, CI 2.61–5.85). In contrast, no change in infection risk is detected for faecal-oral route diseases. Although responses vary by land-use and disease types, results suggest that agricultural land-uses exacerbate many infectious diseases in Southeast Asia.

Highlights

Agriculture has been implicated as a potential driver of human infectious diseases
Deforestation and associated environmental changes may facilitate the transmission of Plasmodium knowlesi to humans in Malaysian Borneo[37]; expansion and changes in agricultural practices are associated with the emergence of Nipah Virus in Malaysia[38] and increased Leptospira infections and fatalities in Thailand have been observed in open habitats such as rice fields that are prone to flooding[39]
Agricultural land-use or land-use change has been repeatedly linked to infectious disease risks in humans[25,27,28,30,31,37,41,42,48–53]; no study has systematically assessed or quantified this association

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture has been implicated as a potential driver of human infectious diseases. the generality of disease-agriculture relationships has not been systematically assessed, hindering efforts to incorporate human health considerations into land-use and development policies. Delivering economic and social benefits, these human activities have resulted in substantial negative socio-ecological consequences, such as increased CO24,5, air pollutant emissions[5], loss of biodiversity[6–11], modifications in surface fluxes of heat and water vapour resulting in changing regional weather patterns[12–14], degradation of air and water quality[15–17] and a decrease in the supply of renewable fresh water[18]. This trade-off between the considerable costs and benefits at stake places the agricultural sector at the heart of global sustainability, health and environmental frameworks Deforestation and associated environmental changes may facilitate the transmission of Plasmodium knowlesi (cause of zoonotic malaria) to humans in Malaysian Borneo[37]; expansion and changes in agricultural practices are associated with the emergence of Nipah Virus in Malaysia[38] and increased Leptospira infections and fatalities in Thailand have been observed in open habitats such as rice fields that are prone to flooding[39]

Methods

Results

Conclusion