Project title: Health status of an endangered primate species in an anthropogenic landscape: a One Health approach.

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Abstract: Pandemics and the ongoing biodiversity loss are threatening the prosperity of human societies. It becomes critical to recognize that human health is interlinked with animal and environmental health, into ‘One Health’, and to investigate further the human-wildlife interface especially in biodiversity hotspots, where endangered species live in close contact with humans. This project investigates the health of the Black Lion Tamarin, an endangered primate endemic to the highly fragmented Brazilian Atlantic forest. In sites with a gradient of anthropogenic disturbances, we explore the pathogen assemblages (parasitic, bacterial, and for the first time, viral) and long-term stress in tamarins. We want to find out whether the intensity of disturbances may stress these animals, weakening thereby their immune system and leaving room for pathogenic infections, which might be transmitted to (but also from) humans, their livestock or companion animals. This project collaborates with local communities, reinforcing thereby its ‘One Health’ approach.

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Contact: olga.szczodry@unesp.br​