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Anthropogenic factors and social organisation drive picobirnavirus communities in wild rhesus macaques
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  • Krishna Balasubramaniam,
  • Isamara Navarrete Macias,
  • Shariful Islam,
  • Heather Wells,
  • Christopher Tubbs,
  • Nistara Randhawa,
  • Melinda Rostal,
  • Karin Darpel,
  • Daniel Horton,
  • Jonathan Epstein,
  • Ariful Islam,
  • Simon Anthony
Krishna Balasubramaniam
Anglia Ruskin University Faculty of Science and Engineering

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Isamara Navarrete Macias
University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
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Shariful Islam
Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research
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Heather Wells
University of California Davis
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Christopher Tubbs
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
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Nistara Randhawa
University of California Davis
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Melinda Rostal
One Health Research Consulting
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Karin Darpel
Pirbright Institute
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Daniel Horton
University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine
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Jonathan Epstein
EcoHealth Alliance
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Ariful Islam
Charles Sturt University
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Simon Anthony
University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
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Abstract

Biologists are increasingly interested in the ecological and evolutionary factors that influence microbial communities. Yet compared to bacterial communities, our understanding of viral community ecology remains limited. Here, we investigated the factors influencing viral community composition and structure among wild rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in human-modified environments in Bangladesh, focusing on assemblages of picobirnaviruses (PbVs) as a model system. We found that anthropogenic factors—particularly human and livestock densities—were the strongest predictors of viral community composition. Host social structure played a secondary role, shaping viral communities at the group and site levels. Virus-virus associations influenced co-occurrence patterns primarily within individual hosts but their effect became less evident at broader scales. In contrast, individual host traits (age, sex, and physiological stress) and viral phylogenetic relationships had minimal effects on viral co-occurrence. Notably, anthropogenic factors had opposing effects on different PbV taxa: while some viruses were more prevalent in areas with higher human and livestock densities, others were less common, possibly due to their association with wildlife or natural environments. This suggests that macaques may acquire certain PbVs from anthropogenic sources while experiencing reduced exposure to others in human-modified landscapes. Together, these findings reveal the dominant role of environmental and social factors in shaping viral communities, and highlight the hierarchical nature of virus community assembly – with different ecological processes operating at individual, group, and site scales.