Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production

Rohr, Jason R.; Barrett, Chris; Civitello, David J.; Craft, Meggan E.; Delius, Bryan K.; Leo, Giulio A. De; Hudson, Peter J.; Jouanard, Nicolas; Nguyen, Karena H.; Ostfeld, Richard S.; Remais, Justin V.; Riveau, Gilles; Sokolow, Susanne H.; Tilman, David

doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0293-3

Cited by 408 publications

(366 citation statements)

References 136 publications

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“…Despite these interactions with Goal 3, research has typically focused on a small number of wellestablished links among other goals, for example between carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation (7), biodiversity conservation and food production (5), or food production and carbon emissions (6). These studies ignore the role that EID risk plays in human health, generating a key policy blind spot: Efforts to reduce EID risk involve trade-offs with other societal goals, which ultimately rely on the same planetary resources (8). At the same time, ignoring EID risk might mean overlooking important synergies in the achievement of other goals, thereby reducing the perceived benefits of a proposed policy, or disregarding the wider consequences of inaction.…”

Section: Environmental Change Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk

Marco

Baker

Daszak

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

246

207

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Section: Environmental Change Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation cannot be considered in isolation (5)(6)(7)(8). Hence, understanding those dynamics is central to achieving the vision of the UN 2030 Agenda.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk

Marco

Baker

Daszak

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

246

207

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“…There may be several reasons why the number of outbreaks is increasing, which are reasons due to local conditions at the source of the outbreak (e.g., probably the presence of a seafood market for the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Zhou et al, 2020). Such factors may be the increasing number of drug-resistant microbes, higher contact rates with wildlife, increased livestock and global food production, urbanization, deforestation, agricultural intensification, and others (Wilcox and Gubler, 2005;Jones et al, 2008;Plowright et al, 2008;Keesing et al, 2010;Smith and Guégan, 2010;Morand et al, 2014;Johnson et al, 2015;Hassell et al, 2017;Jorgensen et al, 2018;McMahon et al, 2018;Rohr et al, 2019).…”

Section: General Discussion and Future Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The increasing connectivity of human populations due to international trade and travel (Guimerà et al, 2005;Colizza et al, 2006;Brockmann and Helbing, 2013;Gabrielli et al, 2019), the rapid growth of the transport of wild and domesticated animals worldwide (Rosen and Smith, 2010;Schneider, 2012;Rohr et al, 2019;Levitt, 2020), and other factors such as the increasing encroachment of human populations on hitherto isolated wild animal populations through loss and fragmentation of wild habitats (Patz et al, 2004;Despommier et al, 2006;Pongsiri et al, 2009;Myers et al, 2013) have led to a great acceleration of infectious disease risks, e.g., the increase in emerging infectious diseases and drug-resistant microbes since 1940 (Jones et al, 2008) and the increase in the number of disease outbreaks since 1980 (Smith et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The accelerated infectious disease risk in the Anthropocene: more outbreaks and wider global spread

Morand

Walther

2020

Preprint

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The greatly accelerated economic growth during the Anthropocene has resulted in astonishing improvements in many aspects of human well-being, but has also caused the acceleration of risks, such as the interlinked biodiversity and climate crisis. Here, we report on another risk: the accelerated infectious disease risk associated with the number and geographic spread of human infectious disease outbreaks. Using the most complete, reliable, and up-to-date database on human infectious disease outbreaks (GIDEON), we show that the number of disease outbreaks, the number of diseases involved in these outbreaks, and the number of countries affected have increased during the entire Anthropocene. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of these outbreaks is becoming more globalized in the sense that the overall modularity of the disease networks across the globe has decreased, meaning disease outbreaks have become increasingly pandemic in their nature. This decrease in modularity is correlated with the increase in air traffic. We finally show that those countries and regions which are most central within these disease networks tend to be countries with higher GDPs. Therefore, one cost of increased global mobility and greater economic growth is the increased risk of disease outbreaks and their faster and wider spread. We briefly discuss three different scenarios which decision-makers might follow in light of our results.

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“…Organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides, for example, target important esterases and nerve cell gates leading to ionic imbalances and uncontrollable convulsions and tremors before paralysis and eventual death (11, 12). Given that pesticide production and trade is estimated to increase drastically by 2050 (13, 14), there is a growing need to understand how agrochemical contamination impacts human and wildlife health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of agrochemical exposure on Schistosoma mansoni cercariae survival and activity

Jones

Davila

Nguyen

et al. 2019

Preprint

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AbstractLand conversion and agrochemical use has altered freshwater systems worldwide, introducing chemicals and pathogens (e.g., helminths) that threaten human health. In developing countries where stringent pesticide use and water treatment is limited, understanding how contaminants and pathogens interact is of particular importance. Schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease, is caused by the free-swimming cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni, a flatworm (trematode) that is transmitted from snails to humans. Schistosomiasis afflicts over 200 million people, reinforces poverty, and has an enormous impact on children. To investigate the effects of pesticide exposure on S. mansoni, we exposed cercariae to four insecticides (cypermethrin, deltamethrin, dimethoate, and methamidophos) at five concentrations above estimated environmental concentrations, and recorded survival and activity during a 24-hr time-to-death assay. To identify live, but paralyzed, cercariae from dead cercariae, we used Trypan blue dye, which is only expelled from live cells. We found no effect of cypermethrin, deltamethrin, or dimethoate exposure on the survival and activity of S. mansoni cercariae. Surprisingly, methamidophos exposure decreased activity and increased survival of cercariae compared to those in control treatments. This result is likely due to methamidophos causing paralysis of cercariae, which reduced energy consumption lengthening lifespan. Although methamidophos exposure increased survival time, the pesticide-induced paralysis left cercariae functionally dead, which could influence overall disease prevalence and thus human health. Future studies that examine the influence of agrochemicals on waterborne disease prevalence and transmission need to consider both the lethal and sublethal effects of exposure to fully understand the complexity of host-parasite interactions.Author SummaryPrevious methods used to investigate the effects of pesticide exposure on free-swimming life stages of trematode pathogens include 1) normal activity, 2) movement following stimuli, or 3) staining dyes. As pesticides commonly target motor function, the use of an individual metric to assign trematode survival might misidentify pesticide-induced paralysis as mortality, therefore underestimating trematode tolerance. In this study, we used activity assays in tandem with Trypan blue staining dye to assess the effects of four pesticides on Schistosoma mansoni cercariae. We found that cercariae are highly tolerant to pesticide levels far beyond environmentally relevant concentrations. Surprisingly, exposure to methamidophos increased the survival and decreased the activity of cercariae compared to those in control treatments. Reduced activity was presumably caused by methamidophos-induced paralysis of cercariae. Although we observed increased survival following methamidophos exposure, the pesticide-induced paralysis rendered cercariae functionally dead. Our results highlight the need for future assays examining trematode tolerance to contaminants to employ both activity assays and staining dye to discern cercarial paralysis from mortality. Understanding the effects of pesticide exposure on disease transmission is of vital importance as pesticide use and agricultural activities intensify in developing nations endemic to waterborne pathogens.

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Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production

Cited by 408 publications

References 136 publications

Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk

Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk

The accelerated infectious disease risk in the Anthropocene: more outbreaks and wider global spread

Effect of agrochemical exposure on Schistosoma mansoni cercariae survival and activity

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