As part of this collaboration between Gorilla Doctors and other regional and international partners under the Strengthening One Health Preparedness, Prevention, and Response in the Greater Virunga Landscape (SOHGVL) project, our research aims to identify high-risk areas for potential disease spillover across the Greater Virunga Landscape.

 

The role of wildlife in infectious disease emergence

 

At human-domestic animal-wildlife interfaces, proximity between human and animal populations leads to cross-species interactions that contribute to spillover of zoonotic pathogens. As we continue to experience the increasing effects of climate change and other anthropogenic environmental changes globally, it is anticipated that human-animal-wildlife interactions will become more frequent due to factors such as shifting animal habitat ranges, deforestation, globalization and trade, and expansion of human communities and agricultural lands. As a consequence, zoonotic infectious disease emergence is expected to continue to increase over time.

 

Zoonoses of wildlife origin have been responsible for several major epidemics and pandemics in humans. Notably, in recent history, diseases including HIV, Ebola virus, Zika virus, Dengue fever, MERS, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) are known or suspected to have originated in wildlife, meaning that they were established in human populations following wildlife spillover events.

 

With this in mind, our work takes a One Health approach, recognizing that human, animal, and ecosystem health are interconnected and integral to each other. We are interested in understanding how various wildlife, ecological, and environmental factors contribute to the epidemiology of zoonotic pathogens of public health concern, and what implications these factors have for outbreak preparedness and response measures in both human and animal populations.

  

Pathogen priorities in the Greater Virunga Landscape

 

Within the GVL, particular zoonotic diseases of concern include Marburg, Ebola, and Mpox viruses, which are endemic to the region and have caused local outbreaks in recent years. Marburg and Ebola viruses belong to a family of viruses called Filoviridae. These viruses cause hemorrhagic fevers in humans and have an extremely high fatality rate, ranging from approximately 25% to 90% of cases during outbreaks. They have also caused outbreaks and mortality events in nonhuman primates, including chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Mpox, a virus in the Poxviridae family, causes a painful rash and febrile symptoms in people, and caused outbreaks around the world in 2022 that led to declarations of two public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs) by the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

Additionally, across the GVL, the preservation of nature and the health of wildlife and domestic animals are important for local communities and livelihoods. Protected areas across the region host incredible biodiversity and wildlife of high conservation priority. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (Uganda), Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda), and Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]) are the only protected areas in the world that are home to mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), and Grauer’s (eastern lowland) gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) are only found in the DRC. Both of these species are critically endangered and, as close relatives of humans, there is concern that they may be particularly susceptible to many of the same pathogens that cause disease in us.

 

Ebola, Marburg, and Mpox are generally thought to first infect humans via sporadic spillover events from wildlife reservoirs, including nonhuman primates, and then establish human-to-human transmission that leads to regional outbreaks. However, there is still much to be learned about the ecology and epidemiology of these viruses, especially regarding the role of wildlife and the particular species that are capable of carrying and transmitting disease. Through our research projects, we aim to help identify critical gaps in the current scientific understanding of how these viruses emerge and spread, both within and between wild animal and human populations.

 

Our research improving pathogen surveillance and pandemic preparedness

 

By utilizing epidemiologic modeling methods to perform spatial analyses and risk assessments, we integrate human health, wildlife, and environmental data from across the GVL to locate important target areas for increased pathogen surveillance, epidemiologic investigation, and outbreak prevention and preparedness measures. This will support continued work screening human and wildlife populations for evidence of pathogen exposure and/or transmission in key areas, allowing us to further investigate how these diseases spread, what species they circulate within, and what factors put people at risk. Ultimately, our research aims to help improve early pathogen detection capabilities and identify important risk factors for disease in human and animal populations.

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This work is made supported by the World Bank Pandemic Fund.