ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2014
Fatal attraction: vegetation responses to nutrient inputs attract herbivores to infectious anthrax carcass sites.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sublethal effects of parasitism on ruminants can have cascading consequences for ecosystems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Pooled it
- Global surveillance of anthrax outbreaks in domestic animals and humans: A retrospective secondary analysis of reported cases over two decades (2005-2024).One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Phylogeny Drives Carrion Consumption by Vertebrate Scavengers Towards Distantly Related Species.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Investigating Bacillus anthracis genomic diversity and trait-specific lineages in an endemic area in northern Tanzania through a combination of traditional and culture-free sequencing approaches.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Modeling the impact of anthrax vaccination on buffalo outbreak dynamics in northern Vietnam.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Risk factors for anthrax in livestock: findings from one health outbreak investigations in Bangladesh.One health outlook · 2026Article
- InvestigatingbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae clone reemergence in association with a multi-year mass mortality event in high Arctic muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus).Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Detection of chronic wasting disease prions in soil at an illegal white-tailed deer carcass disposal site.Prion · 2025Article
- The Effect of Climate Change on Emergence and Evolution of Zoonotic Diseases in Asia.Zoonoses and public health · 2025Review
- Anthrax, livelihood vulnerability, and food insecurity in selected game management areas in Zambia: A mixed-methods analysis at the human-wildlife-livestock interface.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Persistence in time: the hunt forApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Toxin and capsule production by Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis influence pathogenicity in macrophages and animal models.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Anthrax: A narrative review.New microbes and new infections · 2024Review
- Soil Sample Analysis ofMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- One Health intervention for elimination of anthrax in an endemic district of Odisha: A baseline and endline study.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2024Article
- Season of death, pathogen persistence and wildlife behaviour alter number of anthrax secondary infections from environmental reservoirs.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Roles of host and environment in shift of primary anthrax host species in Kruger National Park.PloS one · 2024Article
- Suitability of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) in the Black Sea basin through the scope of distribution modelling.PloS one · 2024Article
- Reference genome assembly and annotation of twoMicrobiology resource announcements · 2023Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Parasites can shape the foraging behaviour of their hosts through cues indicating risk of infection. When cues for risk co-occur with desired traits such as forage quality, individuals face a trade-off between nutrient acquisition and parasite exposure. We evaluated how this trade-off may influence disease transmission in a 3-year experimental study of anthrax in a guild of mammalian herbivores in Etosha National Park, Namibia. At plains zebra (Equus quagga) carcass sites we assessed (i) carcass nutrient effects on soils and grasses, (ii) concentrations of Bacillus anthracis (BA) on grasses and in soils, and (iii) herbivore grazing behaviour, compared with control sites, using motion-sensing camera traps. We found that carcass-mediated nutrient pulses improved soil and vegetation, and that BA is found on grasses up to 2 years after death. Host foraging responses to carcass sites shifted from avoidance to attraction, and ultimately to no preference, with the strength and duration of these behavioural responses varying among herbivore species. Our results demonstrate that animal carcasses alter the environment and attract grazing hosts to parasite aggregations. This attraction may enhance transmission rates, suggesting that hosts are limited in their ability to trade off nutrient intake with parasite avoidance when relying on indirect cues.
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