Abstract
When a transmission hotspot for an environmentally persistent pathogen establishes in otherwise high-quality habitat, the disease may exert a strong impact on a host population. However, fluctuating environmental conditions lead to heterogeneity in habitat quality and animal habitat preference, which may interrupt the overlap between selected and risky habitats. We evaluated spatio-temporal patterns in anthrax mortalities in a plains zebra (Equus quagga) population in Etosha National Park, Namibia, incorporating remote-sensing and host telemetry data. A higher proportion of anthrax mortalities of herbivores was detected in open habitats than in other habitat types. Resource selection functions showed that the zebra population shifted habitat selection in response to changes in rainfall and vegetation productivity. Average to high rainfall years supported larger anthrax outbreaks, with animals congregating in preferred open habitats, while a severe drought forced animals into otherwise less preferred habitats, leading to few anthrax mortalities. Thus, the timing of anthrax outbreaks was congruent with preference for open plains habitats and a corresponding increase in pathogen exposure. Given shifts in habitat preference, the overlap in high-quality habitat and high-risk habitat is intermittent, reducing the adverse consequences for the population.
Highlights
Habitat quality is context-dependent [1], where consumers distribute in response to resource dynamics on a landscape [2,3,4,5]
Host habitat selection varied among seasons and rainfall years in response to environmental fluctuations and habitat dynamics
Zebra preferred open habitats with higher anthrax risk in wet seasons and wetter years, and showed correspondingly higher anthrax mortality associated with higher primary production
Summary
Habitat quality is context-dependent [1], where consumers distribute in response to resource dynamics on a landscape [2,3,4,5] This habitat heterogeneity in turn affects disease risk owing to uneven distributions in species diversity of hosts, vectors and reservoirs [6,7,8], parasite loads [8,9] and abiotic variation [7,8]. We tested the relationships among habitat dynamics, zebra resource selection among habitats with differential risk, and anthrax mortalities, to evaluate how fluctuating habitat quality affects host habitat use and pathogen exposure, and in 2 turn disease dynamics
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More From: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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