Abstract
Shifts in landscape heterogeneity and climate can influence animal movement in ways that profoundly alter disease transmission. Water sources that are foci of animal activity have great potential to promote disease transmission, but it is unknown how this varies across a range of hosts and climatic contexts. For fecal-oral parasites, water resources can aggregate many different hosts in small areas, concentrate infectious material, and function as disease hotspots. This may be exacerbated where water is scarce and for species requiring frequent water access. Working in an East African savanna, we show via experimental and observational methods that water sources increase the density of wild and domestic herbivore feces and thus, the concentration of fecal-oral parasites in the environment, by up to two orders of magnitude. We show that this effect is amplified in drier areas and drier periods, creating dynamic and heterogeneous disease landscapes across space and time. We also show that herbivore grazing behaviors that expose them to fecal-oral parasites often increase at water sources relative to background sites, increasing potential parasite transmission at these hotspots. Critically, this effect varies by herbivore species, with strongest effects for two animals of concern for conservation and development: elephants and cattle.
Highlights
Shifts in landscape heterogeneity and climate can influence animal movement in ways that profoundly alter disease transmission
Water sources have great potential to serve as transmission foci for a range of diseases in a landscape, as they likely concentrate a wide range of hosts in a small area where parasite exposure may be increased[3,4]
While surface water sources are established as hotspots for diseases with obligate water development of parasite or vector, there is little understanding on the effects of water on density-dependent parasites transmitted via the fecal–oral route
Summary
Shifts in landscape heterogeneity and climate can influence animal movement in ways that profoundly alter disease transmission. Working in an East African savanna, we show via experimental and observational methods that water sources increase the density of wild and domestic herbivore feces and the concentration of fecal-oral parasites in the environment, by up to two orders of magnitude. We show that this effect is amplified in drier areas and drier periods, creating dynamic and heterogeneous disease landscapes across space and time. Gastrointestinal nematodes often inflict serious morbidity on domestic and wild herbivores (Supplementary Appendix Tables S1 and S2), and, while no study has quantified the global economic losses attributable to these worms, estimates in Europe show 10–50% production losses on farms due to these parasites[21] and growing worldwide concerns of rising resistance of these parasites to treatment[22]
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