Viana, M. et al. (2023) Effects of culling vampire bats on the spatial spread and spillover of rabies virus. Science Advances, 9(10), eadd7437. (doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add7437) (PMID:36897949) (PMCID:PMC10005164)
![[img]](https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
290119.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. 880kB |
Abstract
Controlling pathogen circulation in wildlife reservoirs is notoriously challenging. In Latin America, vampire bats have been culled for decades in hopes of mitigating lethal rabies infections in humans and livestock. Whether culls reduce or exacerbate rabies transmission remains controversial. Using Bayesian state-space models, we show that a 2-year, spatially extensive bat cull in an area of exceptional rabies incidence in Peru failed to reduce spillover to livestock, despite reducing bat population density. Viral whole genome sequencing and phylogeographic analyses further demonstrated that culling before virus arrival slowed viral spatial spread, but reactive culling accelerated spread, suggesting that culling-induced changes in bat dispersal promoted viral invasions. Our findings question the core assumptions of density-dependent transmission and localized viral maintenance that underlie culling bats as a rabies prevention strategy and provide an epidemiological and evolutionary framework to understand the outcomes of interventions in complex wildlife disease systems.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme grant 852957 (MV); Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship grant 217221/Z/19/Z (A.B., J.B., and D.G.S.); Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society, grant 102507/Z/13/Z (J.A.B., A.B., and D.G.S.); Medical Research Council grant MC_UU_12014/12 (A.d.S.F. and R.O.) |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Streicker, Professor Daniel and Matthiopoulos, Professor Jason and Benavides, Dr Julio and Viana, Dr Mafalda and Da Silva Filipe, Dr Ana and Orton, Dr Richard and Bone, Jordan |
| Creator Roles: | Viana, M.Formal analysis, Visualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing Benavides, J.Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review and editing Bone, J.Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing Da Silva Filipe, A.Investigation, Writing – review and editing Orton, R.Data curation, Investigation, Writing – review and editing Matthiopoulos, J.Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing – review and editing Streicker, D.Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing |
| Authors: | Viana, M., Benavides, J. A., Broos, A., Ibañez z Loayza, D., Niño, R., Bone, J., Da Silva Filipe, A., Orton, R., Valderrama Bazan, W., Matthiopoulos, J., and Streicker, D. G. |
| College/School: | College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research |
| Journal Name: | Science Advances |
| Publisher: | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| ISSN: | 2375-2548 |
| ISSN (Online): | 2375-2548 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2023 The Authors |
| First Published: | First published in Science Advances 9:eadd7437 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence |
University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record
Funder and Project Information
Funder and Project Information