BACKGROUND Anthropogenic pressure in biodiversity hotspots is increasingly recognized as a major driver of the spillover and expansion of zoonotic disease. In the Western Ghats region of India, a devastating tick-borne zoonosis, Kyasanur Forest disease (KFD), has been expanding rapidly beyond its endemic range in recent decades. It has been suggested that anthropogenic pressure in the form of land use changes that lead to the loss of native forest may be directly contributing to the expanding range of KFD, but clear evidence has not yet established the association between forest loss and KFD risk. METHODS The current study sought to investigate the relationship between KFD landscape suitability and both forest loss and mammalian species richness, to inform its epidemiology and infection ecology. A total of 47 outbreaks of KFD between 1 January 2012 and 30 June 2019 were modelled as an inhomogeneous Poisson process. RESULTS Both forest loss [relative risk (RR) = 1.83; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.33-2.51] and mammalian species richness (RR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.16-1.42) were strongly associated with increased risk of KFD and dominated its landscape suitability. CONCLUSIONS These results provide the first evidence of a clear association between increasing forest loss and risk for KFD. Moreover, the findings also highlight the importance of forest loss in areas of high biodiversity. Therefore, this evidence provides strong support for integrative approaches to public health which incorporate conservation strategies simultaneously protective of humans, animals and the environment.

中文翻译：

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森林流失影响了印度西高止山脉生物多样性热点地区Kyasanur森林病的景观适宜性。

背景技术越来越多地认识到生物多样性热点中的人为压力是人畜共患疾病外溢和扩展的主要驱动力。在印度的西高止山脉地区，破坏性的a传播人畜共患病，Kyasanur森林病（KFD），在最近几十年中已迅速扩展到其流行范围之外。有人认为，土地利用变化形式的人为压力会导致原生林的丧失，这可能直接导致了KFD范围的扩大，但尚无明确的证据建立森林流失与KFD风险之间的联系。方法本研究旨在调查KFD景观的适宜性与森林流失和哺乳动物物种丰富度之间的关系，以了解其流行病学和感染生态学。2012年1月1日至2019年6月30日期间共发生了47次KFD暴发，被建模为非均匀的Poisson过程。结果两种森林的损失[相对风险（RR）= 1.83；95％置信区间（CI）1.33-2.51]和哺乳动物物种丰富度（RR = 1.29； 95％CI 1.16-1.42）与KFD风险增加密切相关，并主导了其景观适应性。结论这些结果为增加森林流失与KFD风险之间的明确联系提供了第一个证据。此外，调查结果还强调了在生物多样性高的地区森林流失的重要性。因此，这一证据为整合公共卫生的综合方法提供了有力的支持，这些方法结合了同时保护人类，动物和环境的保护策略。