ArticleNature communications2024
Reservoir displacement by an invasive rodent reduces Lassa virus zoonotic spillover risk.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the Environmental Drivers of Lassa Fever in West Africa: A Systematic Review.Viruses · 2025Pooled it
- Global Cross-Border Migration and Secondary Transmission Patterns of Lassa Fever - Global, 1969-2025.China CDC weekly · 2026Article
- Local Knowledge of Land Use Effects on Human-Rodent Interfaces in Lassa-Endemic Nigeria.EcoHealth · 2026Article
- [Environmental changes and the emergence of zoonoses].Medecine tropicale et sante internationale · 2026Review
- The socio-economic shield limits Lassa virus spillover in urban West Africa.Epidemiology and infection · 2026Article
- Targeting Zoonotic Spillover Drivers for Global Pandemic Prevention: A Narrative Review.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Evaluating vectors for the design of a spillover-disrupting Lassa virus transmissible vaccine.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Serological evidence of Lassa virus in commensal rodents from Senegal.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Local heterogeneity in Lassa fever serology in rural Nigeria: Implications for vaccine trial site selection.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Prevalence of zoonotic nematodeParasitology · 2026Article
- Land use gradients drive spatial variation in Lassa fever host communities in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Article
- Scaling Lassa Virus Dynamics within Anthropogenic Ecosystems (SCAPES) Study Protocol: a mixed-methods observational cohort study of humans, rodents, and landscapes in Nigeria.Wellcome open research · 2026Article
- Serosurveillance Identifies an Endemic Hotspot of Lassa Fever in Faranah, Upper Guinea.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Serological Evidence of Lassa Virus Exposure in Non-Viruses · 2025Article
- Pathogens and planetary change.Nature reviews. Biodiversity · 2025Article
- Towards a 'people and nature' paradigm for biodiversity and infectious disease.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Spillover: Mechanisms, Genetic Barriers, and the Role of Reservoirs in Emerging Pathogens.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Quantifying the risk of spillover reduction programs for human health.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The black rat (Rattus rattus) is a globally invasive species that has been widely introduced across Africa. Within its invasive range in West Africa, R. rattus may compete with the native rodent Mastomys natalensis, the primary reservoir host of Lassa virus, a zoonotic pathogen that kills thousands annually. Here, we use rodent trapping data from Sierra Leone and Guinea to show that R. rattus presence reduces M. natalensis density within the human dwellings where Lassa virus exposure is most likely to occur. Further, we integrate infection data from M. natalensis to demonstrate that Lassa virus zoonotic spillover risk is lower at sites with R. rattus. While non-native species can have numerous negative effects on ecosystems, our results suggest that R. rattus invasion has the indirect benefit of decreasing zoonotic spillover of an endemic pathogen, with important implications for invasive species control across West Africa.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.