Inferring the circulation of the rabies virus and zoonotic risk with public health applications

• Grant number: 24/07056-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Grantee: Maria Eduarda Furlan
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/20504-8 - Spatial prioritization of rabies zoonotic risk and applications for public health in Brazil, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Economic activities in neotropical regions, especially for agricultural expansion, resulted in highly fragmented landscapes. This significantly changed the resources available for biodiversity, such as prey availability due to changes in the environment, influencing the population dynamics of species. These changes can influence the success or decline of species in the face of environmental changes, affecting, for example, the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Neotropical bats, especially Desmodus rotundus, are impacted by these changes, benefiting from the largest amount of fragmented areas. This species has high adaptability to livestock areas, which has boosted its population growth and the expansion of its geographical distribution. This, in turn, has direct implications for public health due to its association as a natural reservoir of the rabies virus (Lyssavirus SSP.). Understanding the spatial dynamics of these bats is critical to understanding the circulation of the rabies virus and their zoonotic risk. Thus, we aim to analyze the zoonic risk of rabies from the potential distribution of hematophagous bats, correlating them with cases of cattle and human beings and their relationship with the characteristics of the landscape. To this end, we will use habitat adequacy models and cross the results of these models with the distribution of cattle herds and the cases of rabies. Our results can help prevent and control this disease, thus contributing to generate effective prevention and control strategies for the transmission of this disease, as well as proposing public health policies.