Human Communities Research Articles

Transformative learning at the community-university-land interface: A political ecology of knowledge, education and health

As awareness grows of the catastrophic implications of global environmental change, multiple scholarly fields addressing health-environment relationships have advocated 'transformative' educational strategies. Holistic Indigenous health-environment models inspire and inform many such efforts, but related land-based learning initiatives involving universities are often impeded by the competitive processes of academia. In this article we report on a community-university partnership – Pedagogy for the Anthropocene (P4A) – aimed at developing transformative educational responses to pressing global crises, inspired by land-based approaches. We integrate political ecologies of health, education, and knowledge to understand the troubled production of pedagogical knowledge in P4A, participant experiences in the resulting educational programs and the role of health and bodies in both. We first trace the production of knowledge as shaped by macroscopic and localized institutional forces; organizational and occupational dynamics; interacting knowledges and individuals; and material factors. Next, we explore participant experiences in the resulting educational programming. In both steps, affect-laden bodies of academics, trainees and community members reveal entanglements with human communities and more-than-human elements, shaped in variable ways by institutional forces such as settler colonialism and university neoliberalization. One key finding involves the role of universities in relation to land dispossession at home and abroad; another includes the challenges of pursuing transformational community-university research within contemporary universities. Tracing such entanglements yields implications for future land-based learning efforts in university settings, and broader praxis for environmental justice in the shadow of higher education's complicity with settler colonialism and globally extractive neoliberal capitalism.

Prevention is Better than a Cure: The Obligation to Prevent Human Rights Violations

ABSTRACT: The obligation to prevent human rights violations has received little attention in the international human rights community, including in academic commentary. This article considers the sources of the obligation to prevent violations in international human rights law and explores some of the content of the obligation. This leads to a recognition that this obligation may challenge the way we often approach human rights violations and what States need to do to comply. While much of the attention to human rights violations tend to be retrospective—after they have occurred, the obligation to prevent violations requires that action be taken before individuals and groups of individuals become victims.

Influence of Compost Amendments on Soil and Human Gastrointestinal Bacterial Communities during a Single Gardening Season.

To measure associations between gardening with different compost amendments and the human gut microbiota composition, gardeners (n = 25) were provided with one of three types of compost: chicken manure (CM), dairy manure and plant material (DMP), or plant-based (P). Stool samples were collected before gardening (T1), after compost amendment (T2), and at peak garden harvest (T3). Compost and soil samples were collected. DNA was extracted, 16S rRNA libraries were established, and libraries were sequenced by Illumina MiSeq. Sequences were processed using mothur, and data were analyzed in R software version 4.2.2. Fast expectation-maximization microbial source tracking analysis was used to determine stool bacteria sources. At T2/T3, the gut microbiotas of P participants had the lowest Shannon alpha diversity, which was also the trend at T1. In stool from T2, Ruminococcus 1 were less abundant in the microbiotas of those using P compost as compared to those using CM or DMP. At T2, Prevotella 9 had the highest abundance in the microbiotas of those using CM compost. In participants who used CM compost to amend their gardening plots, a larger proportion of the human stool bacteria were sourced from CM compared to soil. Soil exposure through gardening was associated with a small but detectable change in the gardeners' gut microbiota composition. These results suggest that human interactions with soil through gardening could potentially impact health through alterations to the gut microbiota.

Microorganisms inside healthy human organs, are the internal tissues sterile?

The recognition of microorganisms inhabiting the gut, urogenital system, skin, and lungs of humans has become widely accepted. Various studies provide evidence of microbial infiltration in tumor tissues, underscoring the potential role of the microbiome in cancer progression. Recent scientific inquiries challenge the traditional belief in the sterility of normal internal human tissues, presenting compelling findings about the existence of microbial communities within diverse internal organs. This perspective, though relatively unexplored, aligns with research in other species, such as mice. To delve deeper into the microbial presence in healthy human internal tissues, an analysis was conducted on 13,871 normal RNA-seq samples from 28 tissues obtained from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) consortium. Acknowledging certain limitations within the GTEx analysis pipeline, it remains noteworthy that the GTEx consortium provides the most extensive and analytically robust dataset about RNA expression within healthy human tissues. Each sample's sequencing reads, not aligning with the human genome (assembly T2T-CHM13v2.0), underwent analysis using AGAMEMNON, an algorithm for aligning and quantifying microorganism abundance at various taxonomic levels. Reference database included 4034 bacterial, 489 archaea, and 11,259 viral genomes, along with 81 fungal transcriptomes. After cumulative sum scaling (CSS) normalization on species-level microbial abundances and retaining only species present in at least 10% of the samples for each tissue, gradient-boosting machine learning models were trained for each tissue. These models aimed to distinguish each tissue from all others based solely on their microbial profile. To validate the results, 38 healthy living tissue samples (from NCBI project PRJEB4337) were analyzed, as the GTEx samples were derived from post-mortem biopsies. The machine learning models exhibited robust performance for 11 out of 28 tissues (Muscle, Heart, Salivary Gland, Brain, Stomach, Colon, Small Intestine, Testis, Blood, Liver, and Bladder). Among these, 8 models demonstrated resilience to in silico contamination. The presence of resilient tissue-specific microbial signatures implies that microbial colonization is not a random occurrence. Testing the ML models on the external dataset of the 38 healthy living samples revealed high discriminatory performance for the Heart, Liver and Colon tissue, indicating the presence of a tissue-specific microbiome even in a living state for these tissues. Notably, the most crucial feature in the heart model was the fungus Sporisorium graminicola, for the colon model the gram-positive bacterium Flavonifractor plautii, and for the liver model was the gram-negative bacterium Bartonella machadoae. The presence of a distinct microbial signature within human internal organs, allowing differentiation of distinct organs through machine learning models, supports the assertion that even under healthy conditions, human internal organs host low-biomass microbial communities specific to each tissue. "BioCancer", “Bioradio 4”. University of Pennsylvania HEALTH SYSTEM (UPenn School of Medicine RedOnc), “Decision support systems to address Nosocomial Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (MDR-CDSS).”. ‘Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ [NSRF 2014 —2020], Greece. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Species-specific eDNA assay development for enhanced box jellyfish risk management in coastal environments

Human interaction with marine creatures holds both positive and negative dimensions. Coastal communities benefit from marine environments, relying on them for sustenance and livelihoods. Fishing activities support economies, and marine biodiversity contributes to overall ecosystem health. However, challenges like overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution pose threats to both marine life and human communities. Recently, there has been widespread concern regarding the potential increase in jellyfish populations across global marine ecosystems, attributed mainly to environmental factors such as climate drivers and anthropogenic forces, or their complex interactions. Encounters with hazardous marine species, such as box jellyfish, exemplify the dangers associated with coastal activities. Unintended interactions may lead to stings, injuries, and even fatalities, necessitating proactive measures and advanced technologies. This study addresses the inadequacies of existing measures in preventing box jellyfish incidents by introducing environmental DNA (eDNA) assays for detecting the deadly Chiropsoides buitendijki and focuses on developing qPCR and dPCR-based eDNA assays. Emphasising prevention over treatment, the study establishes a proactive system to assess C. buitendijki distribution across 63 tourist beaches in the Gulf of Thailand. Comparative analysis highlights the superior performance of dPCR over qPCR and traditional surveys. The dPCR experiment yielded positive results for all eDNA samples collected at sites where C. buitendijki had previously been identified. Remarkably, the eDNA testing also detected positive results in 16 additional sample locations where no physical specimens were collected, despite reported jellyfish stings at some of these sites. These findings underscore the precision and efficacy of the proposed eDNA detection technology in the early detection and assessment of box jellyfish distribution. This advancement therefore not only aids ecological research but also serves as a valuable tool for safeguarding public health, providing an early warning system for potential jellyfish encounters. Balancing positive human-marine interactions with effective risk mitigation strategies is crucial for sustainable coexistence, the preservation of marine ecosystems, and human well-being.

Eksistensi Badan Pengawas Pemilihan Umum dalam Pencegahan Praktik Politik Uang pada Pilkada 2020 di Kabupaten Klaten

This study aims to determine the roles, find out obstacles, and explicate the efforts of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in preventing the practice of money politics during the 2020 Regional Elections in the Klaten Regency. This research is empirical legal research with direct field research. Its primary data source is data from interviews with the Bawaslu of Klaten Regency. The results of this study indicate that Bawaslu as a state institution has a duty to carry out supervision, including preventing violations in Regional Elections. The role of the Klaten Regency Bawaslu in preventing violations of money politics practices include providing socialization to all elements of society and forming an Anti-Money Politics Village and a Monitoring Village. In its supervision, the Klaten Regency Bawaslu experienced obstacles such as a lack of human resources, limited budget, and low community participation in supervision. The community itself is still afraid to report if they find violations. Therefore, to overcome these obstacles, Klaten Regency Bawaslu utilize social media to facilitate the socialization to the public, invite the public, candidates, and campaign teams to reject all kinds of money politics practices, and form Anti-Money Politics Villages and Monitoring Villages.

Smart Trashbin using Machine learning and Internet of Things

Health and hygiene are vital areas in the ever-expanding community that cannot be disregarded or compromised for the welfare of human communities. This idea uses the Internet of Things to separate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste into smart dustbins. People can no longer separate their waste into biodegradable and non-biodegradable categories because of their hectic work schedules. By automatically identifying waste as biodegradable or non biodegradable, smart dustbins with image recognition technology improve waste management by encouraging effective waste segregation and lessening the load on landfills. The goal of an IOT and machine learning-based waste management system for a green, smart society is to use the newest IOT technologies to improve the efficiency of trash management from every apartment in the community.

A RISK-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF INTRA-COMMUNAL VIOLENCE A CASE STUDY OF UVWIE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, DELTA STATE NIGERIA

Intra-communal violence perpetrates across various families and factions in a community and this is strongly supported by the undeniable solidarity felt and exhibited by the violent parties for their respective groups. In this research work, we made some assumptions regarding the violence risk level of the human community. Basic mathematical analyses such as the violence-free and the violent-persistent equilibrium points and the basic reproduction number were examined. As a case study, an analysis of the violence risk level of Uvwie local government, Delta State, Nigeria, was carried out, and the data collected via questionnaires revealed that the community is at high risk level of violence, and so violence will occur in most cases. The violence risk level and the peace level perceptions of various categories of the residents of the community were clearly presented and analyzed. The computational software used in this research was the Version 12 Mathematica Programming Software.

Is Pollution the Primary Driver of Infectious Syndemics?

Syndemics, the adverse interaction of two or more coterminous diseases or other negative health conditions, have probably existed since human settlement, plant and animal domestication, urbanization, and the growth of social inequality beginning about 10-12,000 years ago. These dramatic changes in human social evolution significantly increased opportunities for the spread of zoonotic infectious diseases in denser human communities with increased sanitation challenges. In light of a growing body of research that indicates that anthropogenic air pollution causes numerous threats to health and is taking a far greater toll on human life and wellbeing than had been reported, this paper proposes the possibility that air pollution is now the primary driver of infectious disease syndemics. In support of this assertion, this paper reviews the growth and health impacts of air pollution, the relationship of air pollution to the development and spread of infectious diseases, and reported cases of air pollution-driven infectious disease syndemics, and presents public health recommendations for leveraging the biosocial insight of syndemic theory in responding to infectious disease.

Anthropocentric Disturbance and Devastation in Edward Albee’s The Goat

Edward Albee is one of the most prestigious contemporary American playwrights whose works tend to be engrossing for their avant garde expressions of the postmodern plight. Compared with his other works, The Goat or Who is Sylvia (2002), premiering at the turn of the millennium, pays relatively more attention to human-non-human relationship instead of interactions within the human community. Given the inadequacy of interdisciplinary studies on the play, this paper takes the philosophy of ecological ethics as the theoretical framework and juxtaposes Martin’s disturbance and Stevie’s devastation to nature, especially to the innocent goat, which share the same essence of anthropocentric exploitation, and which can lead to tragic consequences both for nature and for human-beings. Hopefully, this study can not only shed some light on the contemporary crisis of the coexistence between nature and humanity, but provide some reference for subsequent scholars to conduct more diversified cross-field studies of Albee.

Atrocity’s Glass Booth

Abstract This paper foregrounds the defendant as a central actor in trials for mass atrocity. It excavates the practices and scripts of these trials to argue that they are driven by an impulse to construct flat perpetrator portraits. Perpetrators who enter into atrocity’s glass booth are transformed into defendants who are hostis humani generis. Perpetrators who escape this mythification are still viewed as perpetual perpetrators, the moment of their participation in atrocity radiating outwards to demarcate the juridical bookends of their lives. These lives, moreover, are seen as consisting of active choices representing uncompromised agency. The paper suggests that these portraits are tied to international criminal law’s attempt to justify itself as a normative project that claims to act in the name of humanity. It concludes that international criminal law’s aims would be better realized by viewing defendants as equal and engaged members of the community of humanity.

Bacteroidales-Specific Antimicrobial Genes Can Influence the Selection of the Dominant Fecal Strain of Bacteroides vulgatus and Bacteroides uniformis from the Gastrointestinal Tract Microbial Community.

Bacteroides vulgatus and Bacteroides uniformis are known to be abundant in the human fecal microbial community. Although these strains typically remain stable over time in humans, disruption of this microbial community following antibiotics resulted in the transient change to new strains suggesting that a complex, dynamic strain community exists in humans. To further study the selection of dominant fecal microbial strains from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) community, we analyzed three longitudinal metagenomic sequencing data sets using BLAST+ to identify genes encoding Bacteroidales-specific antimicrobial proteins (BSAP) that have known functions to restrict species-specific replication of B. uniformis (BSAP-2) or B. vulgatus (BSAP-3) and have been postulated to provide a competitive advantage in microbial communities. In the HMP (Human Microbiome Project) data set, we found fecal samples from individuals had B. vulgatus or B. uniformis with either complete or deleted BSAP genes that did not change over time. We also examined fecal samples from two separate longitudinal data sets of individuals who had been given either single or multiple antibiotics. The BSAP gene pattern from most individuals given either single or multiple antibiotics recovered to be the same as the pre-antibiotic strain. However, in a few individuals, we found incomplete BSAP-3 genes at early times during the recovery that were replaced by B. vulgatus with the complete BSAP-3 gene, consistent with the function of the BSAP to specifically restrict Bacteroides spp. The results of these studies provide insights into the fluxes that occur in the Bacteroides spp. GIT community following perturbation and the dynamics of the selection of a dominant fecal strain of Bacteroides spp.

Best management practice adoption amongst potato producers in Ontario: a study of drivers and barriers

Best management practices (BMPs) are practical, affordable alternatives to conventional production systems. They contribute to improving the agricultural production system’s ability to address social, economic, and ecological challenges. BMPs enhance the viability and sustainability of agriculture when successfully applied, but in systems where intensive industrial agriculture predominates, their use is limited. Working with potato producers (large, medium, and small scale) in South-Western and Central Ontario, Canada this project applied a Systems Thinking approach to understand motivating drivers and structural, institutional, and organizational barriers impacting the adoption of BMPs for potato cultivation. This study used a mixed-methods approach for two years to collect quantitative and qualitative data using a farm-level survey, focus groups, workshops, and participant observation. Data was collected regarding demographics, management approaches, social networking, and perceived challenges with BMPs uptake. Our data analysis revealed that family and future generations, ecosystem, soil and human health, community and social relationships, and efficiency and profitability were motivating drivers (based on beliefs and values) influencing management decisions. However, structural, institutional, and organizational barriers (including market access, regulation, production efficiencies and competition), mediate producers’ abilities to act according to these motivations. Small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale producers are impacted by these barriers differently. In understanding the decision-making factors which drive BMP uptake in Ontario’s potato sector, policy and program design can leverage drivers and reduce barriers.

Conflicts and the dilemma of media intervention: An educational information management perspective

Conflicts are inevitable in any human community, despite the fact that they are never desirable. One of the characteristics of the contemporary world is conflict. Different parties participate in disputes (individuals, organizations, and states). When disputes arise, interventionist methods are put into action. Conflicts arise in a variety of ways, such as disagreement, rage, quarrelling, hatred, destruction, killing, or war, because human requirements are diverse. Conflict takes many different shapes, and so do interventions. Individuals, groups (both local and foreign), and governments can all intervene in a conflict. The media and its functions are up for debate among those who mediate disputes. Can the media be seen as intervening in a dispute, or are they merely performing their mandated duties? The diversity of opinions is what drives conversations in peace journalism. In addition, peace journalism promotes media engagement and intervention in conflict situations in order to lessen and end conflict. Media intervention, according to some critics, is not objective journalism because those in charge of educational information management and journalists are not expected to make decisions about the news; rather, they should just tell it as they see it. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the idea of conflict, the stages of conflict development, interventions in conflicts, and the contentious position of the media in conflicts from an educational information management perspective. Hence, this paper will contribute to the role of educational information management via social media and other new media platforms, which have occasionally been used to hold governments responsible, unite people in protest of violence, plan relief operations, empower people, dissipate tensions via knowledge sharing, and create understanding across boundaries.

Households neighboring wildlife protected areas may be at a higher risk of rabies than those located further away: a community-based cross-sectional cohort study at Pian Upe game reserve, Bukedea district, Eastern Uganda

IntroductionThis study examines rabies incidence and associated risk factors at the interface between wildlife and human communities near Pian-Upe game reserve in Eastern Uganda. We hypothesized that human settlements in closer proximity to the reserve would exhibit higher rabies risk compared to those located further away.MethodsUsing a standard questionnaire, households within <4, 4-14, and >14 km from the Pian Upe game reserve in Bukedea District were interviewed. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, recent rabid animal bites, and suspected human and livestock rabies cases for the past year (2023) were collected after seeking informed consent. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze socio-demographic information and incidence data, while separate binomial generalized linear models with log-link function were used to identify predictors of rabies incidence and mortality.ResultsBetween January and March 2023, 302 participants were interviewed. Respondents had an average age of 44 years with 34% (n=103) being female. All households owned at least one dog, though only 47% (n=142) had vaccinated their dogs against rabies in the past year. Additionally, 39% (n=118) of respondents used dogs for hunting. Rabies annual incidence increased with decreasing distance to the game reserve (7.5 to 15.7% for humans, for the dogs, and 5.0 to 9.8% for livestock, including cows, goats and sheep). Significant factors associated with rabies in humans included primary education level (aRR=3.8, 95%CI 1.0-23.7) and grazing livestock in the reserve (aRR=5.30, 95%CI 1.0-40.3). Mortality was associated with fetching firewood from the game reserve (aRR=4.7, 95%CI 1.3-17.5).ConclusionsThis study reveals that there is an increased risk of rabies for domesticated animals and people located within proximity to the game reserve. Further efforts to prevent the spread of rabies could include increasing education and awareness for communities along with targeted dog vaccination in settlements surrounding wildlife protected areas.

Frontier ecologies: Israel's settler colonialism in the Jawlan-Golan

In June 2023, thousands of non-Jewish residents of the Jawlan (in Arabic) or Golan (in Hebrew) protested for several days against the construction of a new wind farm near the picturesque village of Majdal Shams (Arabic for Tower of the Sun) on the southeastern border between Syria and Israel. This event and its fallouts were arguably the culmination of 56 years of Israeli frontier making projects in the region. Drawing on in-depth interviews as well as field observations, this article traces Israel's ecological frontier. Specifically, the article chronicles five strategies of nature related frontier making deployed by the Israeli settler state in the Jawlan-Golan in the last six decades: terra nullius, animal nullius, naturalization, militarization, and renewable energy. I refer to such settler colonial investments in various modes of natural and environmental management, when these occur in contentious political regions and near borders, as “frontier ecologies.” The power of frontier ecologies lies precisely in that they seem to exist naturally—namely, beyond the realm of humans and their wars. Ultimately, the nexus of colonialism and nature conservation highlights the ways in which violence travels in between vulnerable human and nonhuman communities. Documenting the Jawlani resistance to colonialism, and to climate colonialism in particular, this article also calls for a more collaborative practices of nature conservation that would unsettle the colonial legacies of frontier ecologies.

A practical model for effective eye care delivery in Southeast Asian rural communities: A proposal built based on experts' recommendations.

To evaluate rural community-based eye care models from the perspective of community ophthalmology experts and suggest sustainable technological solutions for enhancing rural eye care delivery. A semi-structured descriptive survey, using close-ended and open-ended questions, was administered to the experts in community ophthalmology sourced through purposive sampling. The survey was self-administered and was facilitated through online platforms or in-person meetings. Uniform questions were presented to all participants, irrespective of their roles. Surveyed participants (n = 22 with 15 from India and 7 from Nepal) in high-volume tertiary eye hospitals faced challenges with resources and rural outreach. Participants had mixed satisfaction with pre-operative screening and theatre resources. Delayed presentations and inexperienced surgeons contributed to the surgery complications. Barriers to rural eye care included resource scarcity, funding disparities, and limited infrastructure. In rural/peri-urban areas 87% of participants agreed with providing primary eye care services, with more than 60% of the experts not in agreement with the makeshift center model of eye care delivery. Key components for an effective eye care model are sustainability, accessibility, affordability, and quality. These can be bolstered through a healthcare management platform and a human-chain supply distribution system. Tailored interventions are crucial for rural eye care, emphasizing the need for stronger human resources, optimized funding, and community awareness. Addressing challenges pertinent to delayed presentation and surgical training is vital to minimizing complications, especially with advanced cataracts. Enhancements in rural eye care demand a comprehensive approach prioritizing accessibility, affordability, and consistent quality.

A holistic view of human rights and its application in the context of infectious disease pandemics

Under the new coronavirus epidemic, the implementation of public health measures has generated some resistance in countries around the world. The essence of examining the human rights claims of those who oppose the epidemic is that they have a too narrow understanding of individual human rights and ignore the obligation implications of human rights itself. From the historical point of view, health and epidemic prevention is the objective necessity of the survival and development of human society; From the ethical point of view, the joint fight against the epidemic is the moral obligation of the coordinated development of individuals and society. From the normative point of view, the management of infectious diseases is the basic consensus established by many international conventions. To correct the narrow understanding of individual human rights concept, the global human rights concept should be established in pandemic governance, and the concept of human health community should be shaped in the pandemic convention to build governance consensus, implement the same health concept to clarify the scope of governance, implement the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and strengthen the participation of individuals and communities in public health governance to improve governance paths. To shape a more reasonable and effective pandemic governance order.

Derailing the capitalist engine: theorizing relations of mujō through Mugen Train

ABSTRACT As one of the most successful pieces of transnational popular culture, we rhetorically analyze the compelling critique of neoliberal capitalism in the 2020 anime film, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train. Alongside this criticism of neoliberal capitalism, we theorize relations of mujō (無常/impermanence) found in the film, foregrounding this Buddhist principle to advance ways of being that resist neoliberal capitalist impulses. We forward three tenets that emerge in our analysis of this film: (1) recognizing that all beings are embedded within shared entanglements; (2) holding all beings responsible to serve others; (3) transcending the bounds of death by passing the torch of omoi (想い/human feeling). We argue that Mugen Train’s protagonists, the Demon Slayers, embody mujō that demonstrates how those under capitalist subjugation can only be liberated by recognizing human community grounded in such a relational ethic. We thus situate relations of mujō as a critical rhetorical theory that releases us from the neoliberal capitalist pursuit of mugen (無限/limitless).

Fruit–frugivore dependencies are important in Ebolavirus outbreaks in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Ebolaviruses have the ability to infect a wide variety of species, with many African mammals potentially serving either as primary reservoirs or secondary amplifying hosts. Previous work has shown that frugivorous bats and primates are often associated with spillover and outbreaks. Yet the role that patterns of biodiversity, either of mammalian hosts or of common fruiting species such as Ficus (figs, fruit resources used by a wide variety of species), play in driving outbreak risk remains unclear. We investigated what factors most directly influence Ebolavirus outbreak risk in Sub‐Saharan Africa by using a phylogenetically informed path analysis to compare a wide array of potential models (path diagrams) of spatial dynamics. We considered mammalian frugivore richness, cercopithecid and hominid primate richness, richness of pteropodid (fruit) bats, the spatial distribution of species that have tested positive for Ebolavirus antibodies in the wild, Ficus habitat suitability, and environmental conditions (mean annual and variability in temperature and rainfall). The proximate factors that most influenced whether a given host species range contained a site of a previous outbreak event were 1) habitat suitability for Ficus and 2) the diversity of cercopithecid primates. Frugivore richness overall (including bats, primates, and a few other mammals) and the richness of bats in the family Pteropodidae had a strong effect on which species tested positive for Ebolavirus antibodies, but did not influence outbreak risk directly in pathways explored. We interpret this as evidence that foraging around Ficus and frugivorous mammals (such as cercopithecid primates which are commonly hunted for food) play a prominent role in driving outbreaks into human communities, relative to other factors we considered which influence outbreak risk more indirectly.