Abstract
The accelerating anthropization of the Southern Cameroons forest increases the risk of transmission and emergence of wildlife-borne viruses, especially those transmitted by mosquitoes. This increase in infectious diseases is attributed to human activities that bridge sylvatic and anthropic environments. Mosquito-borne viruses such as Zika, yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya viruses are a major health burden. Human activities promote the establishment of anthropic mosquito species, changing the composition of native vector communities and increasing the risk of pathogen transferring from wildlife to humans. My PhD project aims to assess the impact of anthropization on mosquito communities in forest ecosystems and how this may translate into an increased risk of novel arboviruses emerging in humans. More specifically, my project aims to characterize mosquito communities and assess the impact of anthropization on their composition and diversity, as well as to delineate the existing and theoretical links (and bridges) between wildlife and humans through mosquitoes. Fieldwork will be conducted in two study sites in Southern Cameroon, each with different anthropization contexts: the Autonomous Port of Kribi (PAK) and the CAMVERT agro-industrial complex. In each area, mosquitoes will be surveyed and collected using BG Sentinel Pro traps along an anthropization gradient to characterize mosquito communities (alpha, beta diversity analysis). Subsequently, the trophic preference of mosquitoes will be studied by determining the blood origin using blood fed females (amplification, sequencing and blast analysis of 16S gene) and double netting devices to study host preference using different host sources (human and animal). Collected arthropods will be screened to search for enzootic virus infections using an NGS method. All results obtained will be analyzed using modeling approaches to explore relationships between anthropization and the risk of new enzootic viruses emerging in humans.