Kyasanur Forest disease (KFD) virus is one of India’s severe arboviruses capable of causing prolonged debilitating disease. It has been expanding beyond its historical endemic locus at an alarming rate over the last two decades. The natural nidus of this zoonosis is located in the monsoon rainforest of the Western Ghats, India, which is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. Definitive reservoir hosts for KFD virus (KFDV) have yet to be delineated, and thus much of the infection ecology of this virus, and its consequent transmission dynamics, remains uncertain. Given its unique biogeographical context, identifying ecological parameters of KFDV relevant to the virus’ epidemiology has been complex and challenging. The challenge has been exacerbated by diminished research efforts in wildlife surveillance over the last two decades, coinciding with the expansion of the range of KFD across the region. The current investigation sought to define a preliminary ecological profile of KFDV hosts based on their life history and feeding traits to aid in re-establishing targeted wildlife surveillance and to discern those ecological traits of wildlife hosts that may improve our understanding of KFD epidemiology. The importance of fast-living among KFDV hosts was of special interest with respect to the latter aim. We compared mammalian traits between host and non-host species using general additive models and phylogenetic generalised linear models. This study found that both body mass and forest forage were strongly associated with mammalian host infection status, but that reproductive life history traits were not. These findings will help in structuring ecologically based wildlife surveillance and field investigations, while also helping to parameterise novel epidemiological models of zoonotic infection risk that incorporate species functional traits in a region where biogeography, landscape ecology, and community ecology manifest extraordinary complexity, particularly under growing anthropogenic pressure.

Kyasanur森林病（KFD）病毒是印度的一种严重的虫媒病毒，能够引起长期衰弱的疾病。在过去的二十年中，它已以惊人的速度扩展到其历史流行地方之外。这种人畜共患病的天然泥du位于印度西高止山脉的季风雨林中，这是世界上最重要的生物多样性热点之一。尚未确定KFD病毒（KFDV）的确定性宿主宿主，因此，该病毒的许多感染生态学及其随之而来的传播动态仍然不确定。鉴于其独特的生物地理环境，确定与该病毒的流行病学相关的KFDV的生态参数非常复杂且具有挑战性。在过去的二十年中，野生动植物监测研究工作的减少，加剧了这一挑战，与KFD在整个地区范围的扩大相吻合。当前的调查试图根据KFDV寄主的生活史和摄食特征确定其初步的生态特征，以帮助重新建立有针对性的野生动植物监测，并辨别出可能改善我们对KFD流行病学理解的野生生物寄主的那些生态特征。就后一个目标而言，特别重要的是让KFDV主持人快速生活。我们使用通用加性模型和系统发育广义线性模型比较了宿主和非宿主物种之间的哺乳动物特征。这项研究发现，体重和森林觅食都与哺乳动物寄主的感染状况密切相关，但生殖生活史的特征却没有。