64574 Spanish and US scientists have successfully identified animal species that can transmit more diseases to humans by using mathematical tools similar to those applied to the study of social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Their research-recently published in the prestigious journal PNAS-describes how parasite-primate interactions transmit diseases like malaria, yellow fever or AIDS to humans. Their findings could make an important contribution to predicting the animal species most likely to cause future pandemics.
Professor Jos- Mar-a G-mez of the University of Granada Department of Ecology is the principal author of this research, in collaboration with Charles L. Nunn (University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, US) and Miguel Verd- (Spanish National Research Council Desertification Research Center, Valencia, Spain). They propose a criterion to identify disease-transmission agents based on complex network metrics similar to those used to study social networks.
As Prof G-mez explains, «most emerging diseases in humans are zoonotic, that is, they are transmitted to humans by animals. To identify animal species that are potential high-risk sources of emerging diseases it’s essential we set up mechanisms that control and observe these diseases».
Study of 150 primate species
To conduct their study, the researchers constructed a network in which each node represented one of the approximately 150 non-human primate species about which we have enough data on their parasite fauna. «Each primate species is connected to the other primates as a function of the number of parasites they share. Once the network was constructed, we studied each primate species’ position-whether central or peripheral. A primate’s centrality is measured by its connection intensity with many other primates that are, in turn, closely connected», says the University of Granada researcher.
