In the recent past, peste des petits ruminants (PPR) emerged in East Africa causing outbreaks in small livestock across different countries, with evidences of spillover to wildlife. In order to understand better PPR at the wildlife-livestock interface, we investigated patterns of peste des petits

The natural ecology of Ebola virus infection remains enigmatic. No clear reservoir species has been confirmed but there is evidence of infection in a wide spectrum of mammals; including humans, nonhuman primates, domestic and wild ungulates and a variety of bat species, both frugivorous and insectivorous. Humans and most other species examined appear to be spillover hosts and suffer disease. Bats are the exception and are tolerant to infection in some laboratory studies. Some surveys show a low prevalence of antibodies against Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) strains in bats during human outbreaks and inter-epidemic periods, and this order of mammals is considered to be the likely reservoir for the virus. Other putative sources include insects but this hypothesis is unproven in the field or laboratory. Moreover, some potential sources, such as aquatic species, have yet to be investigated. There are a number of environmental, human behavioural and ecological risk factors proposed with respect to spillover and spread. In the West African outbreak, which was unprecedented in scale and geographic spread, the source of the spillover remains unproven, although an association exists between the proposed index case and a colony of insectivorous bats. In all but a few Ebola virus disease events, spillover has only been superficially investigated and this was also the case in the West African epidemic. The authors suggest that, to address risks at the human-animal-environmental interface, using a One Health approach, more effort is needed to investigate spillover factors at the time of a ZEBOV epidemic, in addition to conducting inter-epidemic surveys in peri-domestic environments. The true prevalence of ZEBOV infection in any species of bats remains unknown.Large-scale, expensive, non-randomised surveys, with low sampling numbers per species, are unlikely to provide evidence for Ebola virus reservoirs or to improve our epidemiological understanding.

Mycoplasma conjunctivae is an obligate microparasite that causes Infectious Keratoconjunctivitis (IKC) in Caprinae species. IKC is a long-recognised disease, but little attention has been paid to the mechanisms of transmission of the mycoplasma and its occurrence in locations other than the eyes. In this study, the presence of M. conjunctivae is assessed in the eyes, external ear canals (EEC), nasal cavity, and vagina of host species as well as in potential vectors, which may be involved in the transmission and persistence of infection within the host. M. conjunctivae was detected by qPCR in 7.2 % (Cl 95% 4.7-11.0) of the ear swabs and 9.5 % (Cl 95% 6.4-13.9) of the nasal swabs from Pyrenean chamois, Iberian ibex, domestic sheep and mouflon without statistical differences between species. Mycoplasma detection in nasal swabs was mostly associated with ocular infection (95.6%), but this was not the case for EEC (52.6%). Among the eye-positive ruminants, 27.3% were positive in ear swabs and 64.7% in nasal swabs, and the threshold cycle values of the qPCR were correlated only between eye and nasal swabs (p<0.01; r2=0.56). M. conjunctivae was detected in 1.7%-7.1 % of Musca spp. captured during an IKC outbreak in Iberian ibex and in one out of three endemic sheep flocks. The results indicate that the transmission of M. conjunctivae may occur by direct contact with eye or nasal secretions and/or indirectly through flies. The M. conjunctivae DNA detection in EEC suggests that it can colonise the auditory tract, but the significance for its persistence within the host should be further assessed.

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