Demographics and Conservation Hotspots of PPR-Susceptible Ungulates in Huaitoutala, Qinghai, China

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a viral illness that is highly transmissible and poses a great threat to livestock production, as well as biodiversity protection at an international level.Despite the current vaccination drives, the spread of the PPR virus (PPRV) host range into wildlife populations is undermining eradication efforts, with documented cases of cross-species transmission intensifying control challenges.This study combines field investigation and ecological simulations in a systematic assessment of the threat of PPRV spillover to vulnerable wildlife species within Huaitoutala in China in Qinghai Province.The four vulnerable species were determined in the study: goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), bharal (Pseudois nayaur), argali (Ovis ammon) and wild yak (Bos mutus).The field transects (315km) showed population of gazelles, bharal, argali and wild yaks per unit area as 0.329, 0.302, 0.193 and 0.100, respectively.The most key ecological drivers were discovered as being diurnal temperature range, which was the most significant to influence gazelle distribution and anthropogenic factors, such as human settlement density, which played a significant role in habitat choice by bharal and argali with the help of MaxEnt modeling.This study presents an initial ecological risk assessment, identifying areas where wildlife-livestock interfaces may facilitate potential PPRV spillover.While the approach offers a framework for prioritizing surveillance zones in data-deficient highland systems, it does not confirm active viral transmission.These findings provide ecological guidance to support future targeted serological and virological investigations and strengthen the wildlife component of the Global Eradication Programme.The novel ecological methodology establishes a new concept framework for combating transboundary animal diseases through multi-scale risk prediction.