Anthropogenic and natural influence on disease prevalence at the human-livestock-wildlife interface in the Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania

Human activities in ecosystems interfere with natural processes and cause habitat fragmentation and loss. This restricts wildlife movement consequently reducing the gene flow and genetic diversity. Increased human encroachment on wildlife habitat compromises immunity and disturbs host-pathogen relationships resulting in disease outbreaks in naïve populations. The Serengeti ecosystem is a useful area to study interactions between disease, human factors and wildlife because it has some of the largest wildlife populations in Africa and areas surrounding the ecosystem hold some of the highest livestock populations in Tanzania which can interact freely with wildlife in some areas. PhD dissertation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2012