Following the 2013-2016 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, governments across the region imposed a ban on the hunting and consumption of meat from wild animals. This injunction was accompanied by public health messages emphasising the infectious potential of wild meat, or 'bushmeat.' Using qualitative methods, we examine the local reception and impact of these interventions. Fieldwork was focused in 9 villages in the Eastern and Southern provinces of Sierra Leone between August and December 2015. We conducted 47 semi-structured interviews, coordinated 12 informal group discussions, and conducted direct observations throughout. We also draw from research undertaken in Sierra Leone immediately before the outbreak, and from our participation in the EVD response in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Our findings underscore the social and political reverberations of hunting proscriptions. Messaging that unilaterally stressed the health risk posed by wild meat contradicted the experiences of target publics, who consume wild meat without incident. This epistemic dissonance radically undercut the effectiveness of the ban, which merely served to proliferate informal networks of wild animal trade and sale-rendering the development of acceptable, evidence-based surveillance and mitigation strategies for zoonotic spillovers almost impossible. Further, the criminalisation of wild meat consumption fuelled fears and rumours within communities under considerable strain from the health, social, and economic effects of the epidemic, entrenching distrust towards outbreak responders and exacerbating pre-existing tensions within villages. These unintended consequences are instructive for public health emergency response and preparedness. While wild meat is a risk for zoonotic infection, mitigating those risks entails interventions that fully take into account the local significances of hunting-including a communicative engagement that is designed, validated, and continually refined before emergency situations. Ultimately, our research questions the value of legal sanctions as a means of behavioural change in an emergency context.

Background: Monkeypox is a poorly described emerging zoonosis endemic to Central and Western Africa. Methods: Using surveillance data from Tshuapa Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo during 2011–2015, we evaluated differences in incidence, exposures, and clinical presentation of polymerase chain reaction–confirmed cases by sex and age. Results: We report 1057 confirmed cases. The average annual incidence was 14.1 per 100 000 (95% confidence interval, 13.3–15.0). The incidence was higher in male patients (incidence rate ratio comparing males to females, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.07–1.37), except among those 20–29 years old (0.70; .51–.95). Females aged 20–29 years also reported a high frequency of exposures (26.2%) to people with monkeypox-like symptoms.The highest incidence was among 10–19-year-old males, the cohort reporting the highest proportion of animal exposures (37.5%). The incidence was lower among those presumed to have received smallpox vaccination than among those presumed unvaccinated. No differences were observed by age group in lesion count or lesion severity score. Conclusions: Monkeypox incidence was twice that reported during 1980–1985, an increase possibly linked to declining immunity provided by smallpox vaccination. The high proportion of cases attributed to human exposures suggests changing exposure patterns. Cases were distributed across age and sex, suggesting frequent exposures that follow sociocultural norms.

The multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) is the reservoir for Lassa virus (LASV). Zoonotic transmission occurs when humans are directly or indirectly exposed to fluids of the multimammate mouse, such as urine, saliva, and blood. Housing characteristics and domestic organization affect rodent density in and around households and villages, and are likely to be a risk factor for Lassa fever in humans where the reservoir exists. We use semi-structured interviews (N = 51), a quantitative survey (N = 429), direct observations, and a rodent ecology study to provide new insights into how the organization of domestic spaces brings together humans and rodents and creates pathways for infection in rural settlements in Bo District, Sierra Leone. Rodents were frequently reported inside houses (92.4% of respondents), in which we predominantly trapped M. natalensis (57% of trapped rodents) and Rattus rattus (38% of trapped rodents). Building design and materials provide hiding and nesting places for rodents and lead to close proximity with humans. Patterns of contact are both unintentional and intentional and research participants reported high levels of contact with rodents (34.2% of respondents) and rodent fluids (52.8% of respondents). Rodents are also perceived as a serious threat to food security. These results present detailed knowledge about how humans live with and come into contact with rodents, including the LASV reservoir. Our results argue for further collaborative research in housing and environmental modification such as ceiling construction, food storage, and sanitation as prevention against zoonotic LASV transmission.

Lassa fever is a zoonotic hemorrhagic illness predominant in areas across Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and southern Mali. The reservoir of Lassa virus is the multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis), a highly commensal species in West Africa. Primary transmission to humans occurs through direct or indirect contact with rodent body fluids such as urine, feces, saliva, or blood. Our research draws together qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a fuller and more nuanced perspective on these varied points of human–animal contact. In this article, we focus on the hunting, preparation, and consumption of rodents as possible routes of exposure in Bo, Sierra Leone. We found that the consumption of rodents, including the reservoir species, is widespread and does not neatly tally against generational or gender lines. Further, we found that the reasons for rodent consumption are multifactorial, including taste preferences, food security, and opportunistic behavior. We argue that on certain topics, such as rodent consumption, establishing trust with communities, and using qualitative research methods, is key to investigate sensitive issues and situate them in their wider context. To conclude, we recommend ways to refine sensitization campaigns to account for these socio-cultural contexts.

OBJECTIVE: To provide epidemiological information on animal and human cases of rabies occurring in the United States during 2019 and summaries of 2019 rabies surveillance for Canada and Mexico. ANIMALS: All animals submitted for laboratory diagnosis of rabies in the United States during 2019. PROCEDURES: State and territorial public health departments and USDA Wildlife Services provided data on animals submitted for rabies testing in the United States during 2019. Data were analyzed temporally and geographically to assess trends in domestic and wildlife rabies cases. RESULTS: During 2019, 53 jurisdictions submitted 97,523 animal samples for rabies testing, of which 94,770 (97.2%) had a conclusive (positive or negative) test result. Of these, 4,690 tested positive for rabies, representing a 5.3% decrease from the 4,951 cases reported in 2018. Texas (n = 565 [12.0%]), New York (391 [8.3%]), Virginia (385 [8.2%]), North Carolina (315 [6.7%]), California (276 [5.9%]), and Maryland (269 [5.7%]) together accounted for almost half of all animal rabies cases reported in 2019. Of the total reported rabid animals, 4,305 (91.8%) were wildlife, with raccoons (n = 1,545 [32.9%]), bats (1,387 [29.6%]), skunks (915 [19.5%]), and foxes (361 [7.7%]) as the primary species confirmed with rabies. Rabid cats (n = 245 [5.2%]) and dogs (66 [1.4%]) accounted for > 80% of rabies cases involving domestic animals in 2019. No human rabies cases were reported in 2019. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The overall number of animal rabies cases decreased from 2018 to 2019. Laboratory diagnosis of rabies in animals is critical to ensure that human rabies postexposure prophylaxis is administered judiciously.

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are caused by pathogens that have undergone recent changes in terms of geographic spread, increasing incidence, or expanding host range. In this narrative review, we describe three important fungal EIDs with keratin trophism that are relevant to reptile and amphibian conservation and veterinary practice. Nannizziopsis spp. have been mainly described in saurians; infection results in thickened, discolored skin crusting, with eventual progression to deep tissues. Previously only reported in captive populations, it was first described in wild animals in Australia in 2020. Ophidiomyces ophidiicola (formely O. ophiodiicola) is only known to infect snakes; clinical signs include ulcerating lesions in the cranial, ventral, and pericloacal regions. It has been associated with mortality events in wild populations in North America. Batrachochytrium spp. cause ulceration, hyperkeratosis, and erythema in amphibians. They are a major cause of catastrophic amphibian declines worldwide. In general, infection and clinical course are determined by host-related characteristics (e.g., nutritional, metabolic, and immune status), pathogens (e.g., virulence and environmental survival), and environment (e.g., temperature, hygrometry, and water quality). The animal trade is thought to be an important cause of worldwide spread, with global modifications in temperature, hygrometry, and water quality further affecting fungal pathogenicity and host immune response.