Spatial risk of disease transmission between wild bovids and livestock in Thailand
The livestock-wildlife interface is one of the most essential issues threatening wildlife conservation and public health. Identifying interface areas can help to prioritise disease surveillance and implement mitigation measures and control programs for targeting threatened wildlife. We predicted interface areas which were assumed to be areas at risk of infectious disease transmission based on the spatial overlap between three Thai wild bovids (including gaur, banteng and wild water buffalo) habitat suitability and domestic cattle. We assumed that domestic cattle are the reservoir of bovine infectious disease, and that high cattle density is a proxy for a higher risk of disease transmission. Our study indicated that the highest risk areas for the native species are at the forest edges where overlap exists between high habitat suitability and high cattle density. Wild water buffalo showed the largest proportion of high-risk areas (8%), while gaur and banteng showed similar risk areas (4%