A framework for the study of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers: spillover of bat pathogens as a case study

TLDR

Bats are a major source of emerging zoonotic infections such as Ebola, SARS, and Nipah, yet the links between ecosystem health and human disease remain poorly understood, posing a societal challenge. The authors propose a novel, holistic framework to investigate zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers, illustrated with bat pathogen spillover. The framework integrates natural and social science perspectives to assess policy impacts on public health, land use, and conservation. Conserving wildlife and habitat preserves ecosystem function, benefits human wellbeing and sustainability, and reduces pathogen spillover.

Abstract

Many serious emerging zoonotic infections have recently arisen from bats, including Ebola, Marburg, SARS-coronavirus, Hendra, Nipah, and a number of rabies and rabies-related viruses, consistent with the overall observation that wildlife are an important source of emerging zoonoses for the human population. Mechanisms underlying the recognized association between ecosystem health and human health remain poorly understood and responding appropriately to the ecological, social and economic conditions that facilitate disease emergence and transmission represents a substantial societal challenge. In the context of disease emergence from wildlife, wildlife and habitat should be conserved, which in turn will preserve vital ecosystem structure and function, which has broader implications for human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, while simultaneously minimizing the spillover of pathogens from wild animals into human beings. In this review, we propose a novel framework for the holistic and interdisciplinary investigation of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers, using the spillover of bat pathogens as a case study. This study has been developed to gain a detailed interdisciplinary understanding, and it combines cutting-edge perspectives from both natural and social sciences, linked to policy impacts on public health, land use and conservation.