Impacts of Urbanization and Habitat Characteristics on the Human Risk of West Nile Disease in the United States

Since its initial identification in 1999, West Nile virus has spread rapidly throughout North America, exhibiting high spatial heterogeneity. Previous studies exploring the spatial patterns of the human risk of West Nile Disease (WND) in the United States have demonstrated the important roles of landscape and climatic factors. However, relatively few studies have endeavored to elucidate the effects of habitat fragmentation on WND risk, though it has been considered to affect disease risk through its influence on host community composition, vector abundance and human-vector-host interactions. In this study, we investigated and compared the effects of landscape factors, with a particular focus on habitat fragmentation, on the human risk of WND in the eastern and western United States. Our results demonstrated that landscape factors exhibited significant relationships with disease risk in both regions, while their effects could vary between the regions. Generally, urbanization was positively correlated with the WND risk in both regions, while the fragmentation indices of developed areas showed negative correlations only in the east. In contrast, forest area positively correlated with WND risk in the west, while a negative relationship was found in the east. The fragmentation indices of natural areas in both regions were generally positively associated with WND risk. These differences may be due to the differences in vector species and related processes (host-related or vector-related) between the two regions. With ongoing environmental change, this study provides new insights into understanding the risk factors for WND in the United States and the effects of habitat fragmentation on animal disease risk.