Fungal communities in Macaca fascicularis and Macaca nemestrina associates with forest matrix types in West Malaysia

Abstract

The declining habitats force macaques to migrate near human settlements. Due to the lack of food source from the forest caused by deforestation, macaques quickly learn to raid crops or garden from agriculture land. These raid incidents increase the chances of human-macaque interactions that can lead to other incidents. Macaca fascicularis and M. namestrina are susceptible to different dangerous biological agents that are transmittable to human due to the close proximity in genetics and geography. According to Pederson & Davies,2 cross species disease transmission is caused by three major factors and one of them is overlapping geographical distribution. Besides that, biological factors such as genetic similarity highly determine a successful transmission and infection.3 Close genetic relationships among host species might translate into similar immunological responses.3 As a consequence macaques living in such close distance with humans, are serving as a main source of disease transmission. While M. fascicularis is not currently a species of concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list, whereas M. nemestrina is considered ‘Vulnerable’.4