Examining the role of landscape factors in zoonotic malaria emergence in Southeast Asia

Keywords: malaria, zoonotic, landscape, Southeast Asia, forest
Session Type: Virtual Guided Poster Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 8

Abstract

The One Health concept recognizes the interconnection between humans, animals, plants, and their environment and that human health is related to the health of animals and the environment around them. Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are considered a significant threat to global public health and economy where humans can be infected directly from interactions with wildlife, vectors or domestic animals. A range of interconnected animal-to-human interfaces, where direct or indirect contact with wildlife is possible, facilitate the transmission of zoonotic pathogens to humans. Infectious disease outbreaks and several recent EID events have been linked to environmental changes resulting from anthropogenic land cover land use change like deforestation, habitat fragmentation. One such emerging infectious disease is zoonotic malaria. Many Southeast Asian countries working towards malaria elimination have reported infections of Plasmodium knowlesi, a zoonotic malarial parasite, which is now widely distributed in the region. Certain patterns of anthropogenic changes have been shown to be linked to zoonotic malaria transmission, particularly forest edges / ecotones, isolated settlements in forested areas, fragmented habitats / oil palm plantations, etc. have been linked to a greater risk of infection. We examine the effect of some of these landscape factors on the emergence of zoonotic malaria. We use data derived from moderate resolution satellite imagery to perform our analysis of zoonotic malaria risk at the regional scale in Southeast Asia. Fragmentation analysis and forest edges will be used to determine the wildlife-human interface where zoonotic malaria transmission occurs.