Pests, pathogens, and poverty: Disease transmission at the rodent-human interface in urban and peri-urban environments in East Africa

In the growing cities in East Africa, there are not only growing human populations, livestock kept for food provision and livelihoods, but also undesired peri-domestic animals, such as rats and other rodents, particularly in low-income areas. Rodents can carry zoonotic pathogens, including orthohantaviruses, and Leptospira spp, but also many unknown pathogens.

In this project we will understand transmission ecology of rodent-borne diseases in urban and peri-urban low-income settings in two Kenyan towns.

We will trap rodents along the urban food production supply, including livestock farms, slaughterhouses, food markets, as well as clinics as an environment that should not be contaminated with zoonotic diseases.

The rodents will be euthanized, sampled, and samples will be analyzed for hantaviruses and Leptospira, as well as analyzed with an omics approach, to identify unknown viruses, and the entire rodent virome will be analyzed and compared to sequences from other parts of the world.

We will interview households about their knowledge and perceptions about rodents and diseases, as well as map the urban pest control programs in East Africa.

This project will lead to increased knowledge about rodent-borne diseases in East Africa, and how this may influence food security, poverty as well as human health.

In addition, the project will investigate improved mitigation methods for sustainable positive impact on human health and livelihoods.