Fruit-frugivore dependencies are important in Ebolavirus outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa.

ABSTRACT: 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, cercopi

SUBMITTER: Sundaram M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11867621 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature