Data from: Identifying future zoonotic disease threats: where are the gaps in our understanding of primate infectious diseases?

Background and objectives: Emerging infectious diseases often originate in wildlife, making it important to identify infectious agents in wild populations. It is widely acknowledged that wild animals are incompletely sampled for infectious agents, especially in developing countries, but it is unclear how much more sampling is needed, and where that effort should focus in terms of host species and geographic locations. Here we identify these gaps in primate parasites, many of which have already emerged as threats to human health. Methodology: We obtained primate host-parasite records and other variables from existing databases. We then investigated sampling effort within primates relative to their geographic range size, and within countries relative to their primate species richness. We used generalized linear models, controlling for phylogenetic or spatial autocorrelation, to model variation in sampling effort across primates and countries. Finally, we used species richness estimators to extrapolate parasite species richness. Results: We found uneven sampling effort within all primate groups and continents. Sampling effort among primates was influenced by their geographic range size and substrate use, with terrestrial species receiving more sampling. Our parasite species richness estimates suggested that, among the best-sampled primates and countries, almost half of primate parasites remain to be sampled; for most primate hosts, the situation is much worse. Conclusions and implications: Sampling effort for primate parasites is uneven and low. The sobering message is that we know little about even the best studied primates, and even less regarding the spatial and temporal distribution of parasitism within species.

研究背景与研究目的：新发传染病通常起源于野生动物，因此对野生种群中的病原体进行鉴定具有重要意义。人们普遍认为，针对野生动物的病原体采样仍存在诸多缺失，尤其是在发展中国家，但目前尚不清楚还需开展多少采样工作，以及采样工作应优先聚焦于哪些宿主物种与地理区域。本研究聚焦灵长类寄生虫（primate parasites）的采样缺口——其中诸多寄生虫已成为威胁人类健康的病原。
研究方法：本研究从现有数据库中获取灵长类宿主-寄生虫记录（host-parasite records）及其他相关变量。随后，我们分别针对灵长类物种的地理分布范围（geographic range size），以及各国的灵长类物种丰富度（species richness），分析了其对应的采样投入（sampling effort）情况。我们采用控制了系统发育自相关（phylogenetic autocorrelation）与空间自相关（spatial autocorrelation）的广义线性模型（generalized linear models），对不同灵长类物种及不同国家的采样投入差异进行建模。最后，我们借助物种丰富度估计器（species richness estimators）对寄生虫物种丰富度进行外推估算。
研究结果：研究发现，所有灵长类类群及各大洲的采样投入均存在不均衡现象。灵长类的采样投入受其地理分布范围与栖息基质类型的影响：陆生物种获得的采样更多。寄生虫物种丰富度估算结果显示，在采样最充分的灵长类物种与国家中，仍有近半数的灵长类寄生虫尚未被采样；而对于多数灵长类宿主而言，现状更为严峻。
结论与启示：灵长类寄生虫的采样投入不仅不均衡，且整体水平偏低。令人警醒的是，即便对于研究最为深入的灵长类物种，我们对其所知仍十分有限，而关于物种内部寄生虫感染的空间与时间分布的了解则更为匮乏。