Tanzania provides an optimal opportunity for wildlife zoonotic
disease surveillance at what is one of Africa’s most active
wildlife-livestock-human interface areas. In the more arid areas
of the Rift Valley, water diversion and land conversion for
agriculture coupled with continued population growth are
restricting once vast livestock grazing areas for traditional
livestock keepers. The result is concentration of livestock
populations on remaining grazing land, often bordering villages
and wildlife protected areas. This increasing density of
livestock coupled with water scarcity may change the dynamics of
current zoonotic threats, and may facilitate transmission of
diseases of pandemic potential across the interface.
Additionally, Tanzania possesses many islands of rainforest
habitat, most notably the Eastern Arc mountains, which are
biodiversity hotspots due to the high degree of endemism and
small mammal diversity, providing an exceptional opportunity to
assess zoonotic pathogen potential in small rodent, b