How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk?
Identifying the animal reservoirs from which zoonotic viruses will likely emerge is central to understanding the determinants of disease emergence. Accordingly, there has been an increase in studies attempting zoonotic "risk assessment." Herein, we demonstrate that the virological data on...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-04-01
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| Series: | PLoS Biology |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001135&type=printable |
| _version_ | 1826554808166776832 |
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| author | Michelle Wille Jemma L Geoghegan Edward C Holmes |
| author_facet | Michelle Wille Jemma L Geoghegan Edward C Holmes |
| author_sort | Michelle Wille |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Identifying the animal reservoirs from which zoonotic viruses will likely emerge is central to understanding the determinants of disease emergence. Accordingly, there has been an increase in studies attempting zoonotic "risk assessment." Herein, we demonstrate that the virological data on which these analyses are conducted are incomplete, biased, and rapidly changing with ongoing virus discovery. Together, these shortcomings suggest that attempts to assess zoonotic risk using available virological data are likely to be inaccurate and largely only identify those host taxa that have been studied most extensively. We suggest that virus surveillance at the human-animal interface may be more productive. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T17:56:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-53d32b35ca6c4d43baf2dd9b9eba6f95 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1544-9173 1545-7885 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-14T07:46:48Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-53d32b35ca6c4d43baf2dd9b9eba6f952025-03-03T05:30:51ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852021-04-01194e300113510.1371/journal.pbio.3001135How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk?Michelle WilleJemma L GeogheganEdward C HolmesIdentifying the animal reservoirs from which zoonotic viruses will likely emerge is central to understanding the determinants of disease emergence. Accordingly, there has been an increase in studies attempting zoonotic "risk assessment." Herein, we demonstrate that the virological data on which these analyses are conducted are incomplete, biased, and rapidly changing with ongoing virus discovery. Together, these shortcomings suggest that attempts to assess zoonotic risk using available virological data are likely to be inaccurate and largely only identify those host taxa that have been studied most extensively. We suggest that virus surveillance at the human-animal interface may be more productive.https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001135&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Michelle Wille Jemma L Geoghegan Edward C Holmes How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk? PLoS Biology |
| title | How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk? |
| title_full | How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk? |
| title_fullStr | How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk? |
| title_short | How accurately can we assess zoonotic risk? |
| title_sort | how accurately can we assess zoonotic risk |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001135&type=printable |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT michellewille howaccuratelycanweassesszoonoticrisk AT jemmalgeoghegan howaccuratelycanweassesszoonoticrisk AT edwardcholmes howaccuratelycanweassesszoonoticrisk |