Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Cross-species transmission of pathogens is intimately linked to human and environmental health. With limited healthcare and challenging living conditions, people living in poverty may be particularly susceptible to endemic and emerging diseases. Similarly, wildlife is impacted by human influences, including pathogen sharing, especially for species in close contact with people and domesticated animals. Here we investigate human and animal contacts and human health in a community living around the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda. We used contact and health survey data to identify opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission, focusing mostly on people and the endangered mountain gorilla. We conducted a survey with background questions and self-reported diaries to investigate 100 participants’ health, such as symptoms and behaviours, and contact patterns, including direct contacts and sightings over a week. Contacts were revealed through networks, including humans, domestic, peri-domestic, and wild animal groups for 1) contacts seen in the week of background questionnaire completion, and 2) contacts seen during the diary week. Participants frequently felt unwell during the study, reporting from one to 10 disease symptoms at different intensity levels, with severe symptoms comprising 6.4% of the diary records and tiredness and headaches the most common symptoms. After human-human contacts, direct contact with livestock and peri-domestic animals were the most common. The contact networks were moderately connected and revealed a preference in contacts within the same taxon and within their taxa groups. Sightings of wildlife were much more common than touching. However, despite contact with wildlife being the rarest of all contact types, one direct contact with a gorilla with a timeline including concerning participant health symptoms was reported. When considering all interaction types, gorillas mostly exhibited intra-species contact, but were found to interact with five other species, including people and domestic animals. Our findings reveal a local human population with recurrent symptoms of illness in a location with intense exposure to factors that can increase pathogen transmission, such as direct contact with domestic and wild animals and proximity among animal species. Despite significant biases and study limitations, the information generated here can guide future studies, such as models for disease spread and One Health interventions.

Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Cross-species transmission of pathogens is intimately linked to human and environmental health. With limited healthcare and challenging living conditions, people living in poverty may be particularly susceptible to endemic and emerging diseases. Similarly, wildlife is impacted by human influences, including pathogen sharing, especially for species in close contact with people and domesticated animals. Here we investigate human and animal contacts and human health in a community living around the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda. We used contact and health survey data to identify opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission, focusing mostly on people and the endangered mountain gorilla. We conducted a survey with background questions and self-reported diaries to investigate 100 participants' health, such as symptoms and behaviours, and contact patterns, including direct contacts and sightings over a week. Contacts were revealed through networks, including humans, domestic, peri-domestic, and wild animals for 1) network of contacts seen in the week of background questionnaire completion, 2) network of contacts seen during the diary week. Participants frequently felt unwell during the study, reporting from one to 10 disease symptoms at different intensity levels (maximum of seven symptoms in one day), with severe symptoms comprising 6.4% of the diary records and tiredness and headaches the most common symptoms. Besides human-human contacts, direct contacts with livestock and peri-domestic animals were the most common. Wildlife contacts were the rarest, including one direct contact with gorilla with a concerning timeline of reported symptoms. The contact networks were moderately connected and revealing a preference in contacts within the same species or taxon and within their groups. Despite sightings of wildlife being much more common than touching, one participant declared direct contact with a mountain gorilla during the week. Gorillas were seen very close to six animal taxa (including themselves) considering all interaction types, mostly seen closer to other gorillas, but also people and domestic animals. Our findings reveal a local human population with recurrent symptoms of illness in a location with intense exposure to factors that can increase pathogen transmission, such as direct contact with domestic and wild animals and proximity among animal species. Despite significant biases and study limitations, the information generated here can guide future studies, such as models for disease spread and One Health interventions.

Effect of altitude on Mistletoe’s distribution in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BNIP), Uganda

This study examined mistletoes in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in South Western Uganda. In 6.4 ha, comprising 64 plots, divided between disturbed and less disturbed forests, spanning on an elevation range of 1160 to 2607 m a.s.l. 1,496 mistletoescounts were recorded, comprising of 21 species in seven genera and two families. These were hosted on 542 host trees comprising of 45 species in 18 unique mistletoes –host families. These mistletoes showed a preference for stems growing in open conditions with the mean density of 356 ha-1 versus 129 ha-1 in denser forest. The most abundant mistletoe species were found in the altitudinal range of a1000.5-1500m and 1500.5-2000.5m a.s.l with minimum numbers of counts dominated by Englerina woodfordiodes (with a count of 151 contributing to 23.18 %.) and Phragamenthera usuiensis (with155 counts contributing to f 42.8% of mistletoes in Bwindi forest).Mistletoe abundance differed significantly between altitude ranges (P < 0.001) although it was similar between the forest edge and interior sites (P= 0.565).Nevertheless, six mistletoe species were recorded over one hundred times each and another six species were recorded only once implying that the species list is incomplete. Application of Chao’s estimator indicated that mistletoe species richness is likely to exceed 40 species suggesting that mistletoes represent a significant component of the forest’s botanical diversity.