A One Health Approach to Prevent Future Pandemics: Joining Forces to Reduce Health Risks in the Wildlife Trade

## **Characterizing Human–Wildlife Contact and Risk Factors at the Human– Wildlife Interface in Cambodia**

**Julia Guillebaud1 , Aude Tralci1, 2, 3, 4, Samorn Sreng5, Navin Chhin6, Julien Cappelle2, and Véronique Chevalier1, 2, <sup>5</sup>**

1Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Institut Pasteur International Network, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

2Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), Unité Mixte de Recherche ASTRE, Montpellier, France

3Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, France

4Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

5Epidemiology and Public Health Unit, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Institut Pasteur

International Network, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

6Forestry Administration, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In Southeast Asia, agricultural and socio-cultural practices regularly bring humans into contact with wildlife.

Recent epidemics (Ebola, SARS-CoV-1, and probably SARS-CoV-2) have demonstrated that these repeated contacts favor viral spillover events leading to the (re-)emergence of zoonotic viruses. It is, therefore, necessary to improve our knowledge of this critical interface to mitigate cross-species transmission and emergence of pathogens. Implemented in the frame of the ZooCov project "Toward an integrated surveillance of potentially zoonotic Betacoronaviruses in the wild animal value chains of Cambodia**"** , this preliminary pilot study aims to characterize contact of the human population with wildlife and risk factors at the human–wildlife interface in Cambodia. Between August 2020 and March 2021, four sessions of interviews were conducted in selected villages in Stung Treng and Mondulkiri Provinces. These two areas were chosen as they encompass several wildlife sanctuaries. Wild meat consumption is common, and the circulation of several coronaviruses among wild animals has been detected. Individually structured questionnaires were used to collect socio-demographic and wildlife-related risk practices information: consumption, sale, and hunting of wildlife activities of rangers or foresters. The association between wildlife exposure and socio- demographic data was assessed using logistic multivariate analysis. A total of 901 participants aged 18-89 were interviewed, with an overall male:female ratio of 1.6. Population exposed to wildlife represented 79.1%, including 56.9% of consumers, 13.2% of rangers, 5.2% of foresters, 3.2% of hunters, and 0.6% of sellers.

Participants aged 26-32 years old (OR=2.2, IC95%: [1.3-3.8]), male (OR=3.2, IC95%: [2.2-4.8]), higher level of education (≥secondary school) (OR=2.1, IC95%: [1.1-4.2]), Krol and Thmon ethnic groups (OR=29.0, IC95% [5.9-524.1]), and monthly household income of 100-300US\$ (OR=2.6, IC95%: [1.7-4.1]) were statistically associated with exposure to wildlife. The following risk practices were reported among exposed participants: consumption of cooked bushmeat (83.9%), manipulating raw bushmeat (42.5%), touching living wild animals (33.4%), consumption of raw bushmeat (23.7%), touching dead wild animals (23.3%), and killing wild animals (21.3%). Exposure frequency was the highest among foresters (57.4%), rangers (20.2%), and consumers (9.6%). Among 1,551 reports of different wild animal species consumed by participants classified as consumers and foresters, wild boars (30%), cervids such as deer and red muntjac (26%), and small mammals such as macaques, civets or squirrels (19%), were the most cited. This first characterization of the population at the human–wildlife interface in Cambodia highlights profiles and risk behavior for potential zoonotic spillover. As serums were collected for all participants, these results lay the foundations for the quantification of the risk of zoonotic virus exposition. This should constitute one of the first pillars in the implementation of an integrated surveillance system for zoonotic spillover events in Cambodia.

#### Materials and Methods


#### Authors

Julia Guillebaud1, Aude Tralci 1,2,3,4, Samom Sreng5, Navin Chhin6, Julien Cappelle2, and Véronique Chevaliert1,2,5

1 lnstitut Pasteur du Cambodge, lnstltut Pasteur International Network, Phnom Penh, Cambodia;

2 Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), Unité Mixte de Recherche ASTRE, Montpellier, France

3 Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, France

4 Université Toulouse Ill Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

<sup>5</sup> Epidemiology and Public Health Unit, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Institut Pasteur International Network, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

<sup>6</sup> Forestry Administration, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

#### Background


A preliminary pilot study was conducted to characterize the contact of human population with wildlife and risk factors at the human–wildlife interface in Cambodia
