Rodent reservoirs of future zoonotic diseases
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Forecasting reservoirs of zoonotic disease is a pressing public health priority. We apply machine learning to datasets describing the biological, ecological, and life history traits of rodents, which collectively carry a disproportionate number of zoonotic pathogens. We identify particular rodent species predicted to be novel zoonotic reservoirs and geographic regions from which new emerging pathogens are most likely to arise. We also describe trait profiles—complexes of biological features—that distinguish reservoirs from nonreservoirs. Generally, the most permissive rodent reservoirs display a fast-paced life history strategy, maximizing near-term fitness by having many altricial young that begin reproduction early and reproduce frequently. These findings may constitute an important lead in guiding the search for novel disease reservoirs in the wild.
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Han et al. found a similar pattern in rodents using host-pathogen associations for zoonotic diseases.
“Han et al. (22) found a similar pattern in rodents using host-pathogen associations for zoonotic diseases.”
From Impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on zoonotic diseases (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
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- Authors
- Han, B. A., Schmidt, J. P., Bowden, S. E., & Drake, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2015-05-18
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 7039-7044
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4460448
- OpenAlex
- W1917173555
- Semantic Scholar
- 553b4ddcc723c58bc88dd20730120991d0fa8c5e
- Cited by
- 629
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 48 · 2025: 66 · 2024: 88 · 2023: 72 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 81 · 2020: 61 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 11
- FWCI
- 35.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Funders
- Office of Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health (Postdoctoral Research Fellowship)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Zoonotic diseases and public health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Keywords
- rodent reservoirs, zoonoses, host traits, range size, lifetime reproductive output, biogeography, emerging infectious diseases, disease prediction, machine learning prediction
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Disease Reservoirs, Forecasting, Geography, Humans, Population Density, Public Health, Regression Analysis, Reproduction, Rodentia, Sexual Maturation, Species Specificity, Zoonoses, Computational Biology, Geographic Mapping
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