Assessing the distribution of disease-bearing rodents in human-modified tropical landscapes

1. We tested how habitat structure and fragmentation affect the spatial distribution of common murine rodents inhabiting human-dominated landscapes in southeast Asia. The spatial distribution patterns observed for each rodent species were then used to assess how changes in habitat structure may potentially affect the risk of several major rodent-borne diseases. 2. For this analysis, we used an extensive geo-referenced database containing details of rodents trapped from seven sites in Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR. We also developed land cover layers for each site. Results from published studies that screened for five major rodent-borne pathogens in rodents were used to estimate how these pathogens would likely be impacted by these alterations in habitat structure and composition. 3. Our results confirmed the specialist and/or synanthropic status of several rodent species, although the majority of species studied demonstrated some degree of low level of habitat specialization. 4. Habita...