RT Journal Article
T1 Human activities link fruit bat presence to Ebola virus disease outbreaks
A1 Olivero-Anarte, Jesús
A1 Fa, Julia E.
A1 Farfán-Aguilar, Miguel Ángel
A1 Márquez-Moya, Ana Luz
A1 Real-Giménez, Raimundo
A1 Juste, F. Javier
A1 Leendertz, Siv Aina
A1 Nasi, Robert
K1 Ébola
AB A significant link between forest loss and fragmentation and outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in humans has been documented. Deforestation may alter the natural circulation of viruses and change the composition, abundance, behaviour and possibly viral exposure of reservoir species. This in turn might increase contact between infected animals and humans. Fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae have been suspected as reservoirs of the Ebola virus. At present, the only evidence associating fruit bats with EVD is the presence of seropositive individuals in eight species and polymerase chain reaction-positive individuals in three of these. Our study investigates whether human activities can increase African fruit bat geographical ranges and whether this influence overlaps geographically with EVD outbreaks that, in turn, are favoured by deforestation. We use species observation records for the 20 fruit bat species found in favourable areas for the Ebola virus to determine factors affecting the bats’ range inside the predicted Ebola virus area. We do this by employing a hypothetico-deductive approach based on favourability modelling. We show that the range of some fruit bat species is linked to human activities within the favourable areas for the Ebola virus. More specifically, the areas where human activities favour the presence of five fruit bat species
PB Wiley
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/28983
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/28983
LA spa
NO Olivero, J., Fa, J.E., Farfán, M.A., Márquez, A.L., Real, R., Juste, F.J., Leendertz, S.A., Nasi, R. (2020). Human activities link fruit bat presence to Ebola virus disease outbreaks . Mammal Review 50: 1-10
NO This study was supported by USAID as part of the Bushmeat Research Initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry and by the project CGL2016-76747-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER Funds.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 21 ene 2026