Data from: Changing landscapes of Southeast Asia and rodent-borne diseases: decreased diversity but increased transmission risks

The reduction in biodiversity through land use changes due to urbanization
and agricultural intensification, appears linked to major epidemiological
changes in many human diseases. Increasing disease risks and the emergence
of novel pathogens appear to result from increased contact between
wildlife, domesticated animals and humans. We investigate how increasing
human domination of the environment may favor generalist and synanthropic
rodent species and affect the diversity and prevalence of rodent-borne
pathogens in Southeast Asia, a hotspot of threatened and endangered
species and emerging infectious diseases. We used extensive pathogen
survey data on rodents from seven sites in mainland Southeast Asia in
conjunction with present and past land cover analysis. At low spatial
resolution across sites, we found that rodent-borne pathogen richness is
negatively associated with increasing urbanization, characterized by
increased habitat fragmentation, agriculture cover and deforestation.
However at high spatial resolution among sites, we found that some major
pathogens are favored by certain environmental characteristics associated
with human domination of landscapes, including irrigation, habitat
fragmentation, and increased agricultural land cover. In addition,
synanthropic rodents, many of which are important pathogen reservoirs,
were found favoured in fragmented and human-dominated areas, which may
ultimately enhance the opportunities for zoonotic transmission and human
infection by certain pathogens.