Biodiversity footprints of 151 popular dishes from around the world.

Habitat loss for food production is a key threat to global biodiversity. Despite the importance of dietary choices on our capacity to mitigate the on-going biodiversity crisis, unlike with specific ingredients or products, consumers have limited information on the biodiversity implications of choosing to eat a certain popular dish. Here we estimated the biodiversity footprints of 151 popular local dishes from around the world when globally and locally produced and after calorical content standardization. We find that specific ingredients (beef, legumes, rice) encroaching on biodiversity hotspots with already very high agricultural pressure (e.g. India) lead to high biodiversity footprint in the dishes. Examples of high-biodiversity-footprint popular dishes were beef dishes such as fraldinha (beef cut dish) originating from Brazil and legume dishes such as chana masala (chickpea curry) from India. Regardless of assuming locally or globally produced, feedlot or pasture livestock production, vegan and vegetarian dishes presented lower biodiversity footprints than dishes containing meat. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of analysing biodiversity footprint at the dish level across multiple countries, making sustainable eating decisions more accessible to consumers.

Range area and the fast-slow continuum of life history traits predict pathogen richness in wild mammals.

Surveillance of pathogen richness in wildlife is needed to identify host species with a high risk of zoonotic disease spillover. While several predictors of pathogen richness in wildlife hosts have been proposed, their relative importance has not been formally examined. This hampers our ability to identify potential disease reservoirs, particularly in remote areas with limited surveillance efforts. Here we analyzed 14 proposed predictors of pathogen richness using ensemble modeling and a dataset of 1040 host species to identify the most important predictors of pathogen richness in wild mammal species. After controlling for research effort, larger species geographic range area was identified to be associated with higher pathogen richness. We found evidence of duality in the relationship between the fast-slow continuum of life-history traits and pathogen richness, where pathogen richness increases near the extremities. Taxonomic orders Carnivora, Proboscidea, Artiodactyla, and Perissodactyla were predicted to host high pathogen richness. The top three species with the highest pathogen richness predicted by our ensemble model were Canis lupus, Sus scrofa, and Alces alces. Our results can help support evidence-informed pathogen surveillance and disease reservoir management to prevent the emergence of future zoonotic diseases.

Should monkeys wash their hands and feet: A pilot-study on sources of zoonotic parasite exposure.

Human exposure to zoonotic parasites via contaminated soil is a much studied area. Less research has been performed on exposure via contact with animals and surfaces such as picnic tables with which infected animals might be in contact. On St. Kitts, wild African green monkeys (AGM; Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus), which are known to have zoonotic parasites, roam freely in areas with outdoor dining facilities and are used in the tourist industry. In this study, the hands and feet of eight AGM and picnic tables where AGM were known to walk on were examined for parasitic organisms. Six of the AGM had parasitic organisms on their hands and/or feet. Trichuris spp. eggs, hookworm larvae and eggs and pinworm eggs were recovered from the tables. The results of this pilot study highlight other potential means of transfer of zoonotic parasites and suggest that surfaces without obvious fecal material can be contaminated with zoonotic parasites.