ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Conserv. Sci.
Sec. Animal Conservation
Environmental and demographic risk factors for respiratory illness in endangered wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Rwanda
Provisionally accepted
Kirsten V.K. Gilardi1,2*
Brooke N. Genovese1
Laurie A. Harris1Michael Cranfield1,2Jean Bosco Noheri3
Jean Felix Kinani2,4Dawn Zimmerman5Methode Bahizi3
Tierra Smiley Evans1,2Antoine Mudakikwa6Tracey Goldstein1,7
Jonna A.K. Mazet1- 1Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, One Health Institute, University of California, Davis, Davis, United States
- 2Gorilla Doctors, Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project Inc., Davis, United States
- 3Gorilla Doctors, Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project Inc., Musanze, Rwanda
- 4One Health Approach for Conservation, Gorilla Health, Kigali, Rwanda
- 5Veterinary Initiative for Endangered Wildlife, Bozeman, United States
- 6Rwanda Development Board, Kigali, Rwanda
- 7One Health Institute, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases are an important health consideration for free ranging great apes, and respiratory illness (RI) is of particular concern in mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), accounting for 25% all of mortalities. In addition to ongoing efforts to determine the etiology of RI in mountain gorillas, an improved understanding of environmental and demographic risk factors for the development of RI is critical for informing a disease prevention strategy for this species. To evaluate potential risk factors for RI, data were compiled from medical and life history records on free-ranging human-habituated mountain gorillas in Rwanda over a 7-year period from December 2005-December 2012. Associations between demographic, environmental and management risk factors and the presence of signs of clinical RI were evaluated using a multivariable mixed logistic regression model. Clinical records from 21 habituated gorilla family groups, including 346 individuals, were included in analyses. Seventy-one percent of groups (n=15/21 gorilla groups) and 55% of individuals (n=192/346 gorillas) experienced at least one RI event. Rainy season (odds ratio [OR]=2.30, 95% CI=1.74-3.03, P-value<0.001) and group size (OR=1.15, 95% CI=1.11-1.18, P-value<0.001) were associated with increased odds of RI in mountain gorillas, and there was a significant trend of increasing odds of RI with increasing group size for groups larger than 16 individuals and a more than 3-fold increase in odds of RI for groups larger than 38 individuals compared to groups of ten or less.
Keywords: Free-ranging, Human-wildlife interface, Mountain gorilla, One Health, respiratory disease, Risk factors, Rwanda
Received: 13 Aug 2025; Accepted: 19 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gilardi, Genovese, Harris, Cranfield, Noheri, Kinani, Zimmerman, Bahizi, Smiley Evans, Mudakikwa, Goldstein and Mazet. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kirsten V.K. Gilardi
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.