Characterisation of Wildlife-Livestock Interfaces: The Need for Interdisciplinary Approaches and a Dedicated Thematic Field

The study of wildlife-livestock interfaces has long suffered from the sealing among the different agricultural—including veterinary—and environmental sectors and the lack of multidisciplinary approaches. Following the SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and H5N1 crisis, bridges have been developed between sectors and different disciplines, especially between the fields of epidemiology and ecology and, more recently, molecular biology and social sciences. Today wildlife-livestock interfaces benefit from an increased attention by biologists and epidemiologists who have developed dedicated approaches for their characterization. These approaches combine behavioural studies on both domestic and wild species; major technological advances in molecular techniques; and the use of social sciences to capture local knowledge on agricultural practices and wildlife behaviour. In this chapter, we further define wildlife-livestock interfaces and review the different approaches that have been developed to characterise them in terms of frequency and intensity of contacts between hosts. Then we provide case studies in the context of disease ecology illustrating how the characterisation of the wildlife-livestock interface can feed disease ecology studies and guide surveillance and control of infectious diseases. Finally, we argue for a dedicated field focusing on wildlife-livestock interfaces that have particular characteristics and implications in disease ecology.