Anthropogenic deforestation, El Niiio and the emergence of Nipah virus in Malaysia

Chua, Kaw Bing, and Chua, Beng Hui, and Wang, Chew Wen, (2002) Anthropogenic deforestation, El Niiio and the emergence of Nipah virus in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Pathology, 24 (1). pp. 15-21. ISSN 0126-8635

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Affiliations

University of Malaya. Faculty of Medicine. Dept. of Medical Microbiology
University of Malaya. Faculty of Medicine. Dept. of Medical Microbiology
University of Malaya. Faculty of Medicine. Dept. of Biochemistry

Abstract

In late 1998, a novel paramyxovirus named Nipah virus, emerged in Malaysia, causing fatal disease in domestic pigs and humans with substantial economic loss to the local pig industry. Pteropid fruitbats have since been identified as a natural reservoir host. Over the last two decades, the forest habitat of these bats in Southeast Asia has been substantially reduced by deforestation for pulpwood and industrial plantation. In 199711998, slash-and-bum deforestation resulted in the formation of a severe haze that blanketed much of Southeast Asia in the months directly preceding the Nipah virus disease outbreak. This was exacerbated by a drought driven by the severe 1997-1998 El Niiio Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event. We present data suggesting that this series of events led to a reduction in the availability of flowering and fruiting forest trees for foraging by fruitbats and culminated in unprecedented encroachment of fruitbats into cultivated fruit orchards in 19971-1998. These anthropogenic events, coupled with the location of piggeries in orchards and the design of pigsties allowed transmission of a novel paramyxovirus from its reservoir host to the domestic pig and ultimately to the human population.

Item Type:

Journal

Additional Information:

We are thankful to the Meteorological Services of Singapore for the kind permission to use the NOAAJAVHRR-14 satellite image, the Meteorological services of Malaysia for the rainfall data and the Alam Sekitar Malaysia Sdn Bhd for the kind permission to use the air quality data in peninsular Malaysia. We thank Dr. Peter Daszak, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory New York, USA for useful review and comments of the manuscript.

Keywords:

Anthropogenic deforestation, El Niiio, Nipah virus emergence.

Subjects:

R Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing

ID Code:

1819