Name: Nila Rassia Costa Gontijo
Type: MSc dissertation
Publication date: 16/05/2019
Advisor:

Name	Role
Danielle de Oliveira Moreira	Co-advisor *
Sérgio Lucena Mendes	Advisor *

Examining board:

Name	Role
Carla de Borba Possamai	External Alternate *
Danielle de Oliveira Moreira	Co advisor *
Karen Barbara Strier	Internal Examiner *
Leonora Pires Costa	Internal Alternate *
Rodrigo Lima Massara	External Examiner *
Sérgio Lucena Mendes	Advisor *

Summary: Infectious’ diseases are a big health concern worldwide that is triggered by anthropic activities in many of the cases. Among these diseases are the arboviruses caused by arbovirus that can be a big threat to the fauna, also decreasing the free life population. One of the most known diseases that affect wild animal’s population mainly neotropical primates is the yellow fever. During 2017 and 2018 years, the Espírito Santo state was affect by an outbreak of wild yellow fever that recorded several epizooties. So, the present study aims to evaluate the yellow fever outbreak impact on primate populations that inhabit forest fragments in areas covered by different vegetation rates in the highland region state. Active searches were performed at 36 point to verify primate presence after the outbreak also 81 citizens were interviewed closed to the sample area to evaluate their perception to primate presence, before and after the virosis in the area. Following, models were created to estimate occupation probabilities before the outbreak and extinction probabilities after the outbreak, using fragmental areas, functional isolation and yellow fever index as variables. According to the interviews the recent primate population decrease in isolated fragments was 82.5% to Alouatta guariba, 49.1% to Callithrix spp., 25.5% to Callicebus personatus, 23,7% to Sapajus nigritus and 19% to Brachyteles hypoxanthus. The modelsindicate that the greater functional isolatin of the sample points the lower outbreak occupation probability for all species, except to A. guariba that was not influenced by the studied variables. Generally, isolated fragments present lower gene flow between populations. Considering that variability gene reduction unfavorable the population viability and the species long-term survival in this region, the isolation may have become the species more susceptible to stochastic events such as the recent outbreak. The highly fragmented landscape implications together to other factors may have decreased the primate population occupation unbalancing the populations. Consequently, the fragmentation, isolation and the yellow fever presence may have caused local extinctions in the studied cities, especially to Alouatta guariba that is a highly susceptible specie to the viruses. Therefore, to understand the species response to landscape factors and to stochastic events such as yellow fever, is fundamental to predict future extinctions and population disturbances also to develop conservation measurements consistent to local reality. This work reinforces the importance to preserve large forest fragments more connected to contribute for primate species persistence and viability in few fragments.
Keywords: epizootics, local extinction, interviews, population reduction.

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