Quantifying intra‐ and inter‐species contact rates at supplemental feeding sites in Ethiopia to inform rabies maintenance potential of multiple host species

Rabies, a multi‐host pathogen responsible for the loss of roughly 59,000 human lives each year worldwide, continues to impose a significant burden of disease despite control efforts, especially in Ethiopia. However, how species other than dogs contribute to rabies transmission throughout Ethiopia remains largely unknown. In this study, we quantified interactions among wildlife species in Ethiopia with the greatest potential for contributing to rabies maintenance. We observed wildlife at supplemental scavenging sites across multiple landscape types and quantified transmission potential. More specifically, we used camera trap data to quantify species abundance, species distribution, and intra‐ and inter‐species contacts per trapping night over time and by location. We derived a mathematical expression for the basic reproductive number (R (0)) based on within‐ and between‐species contract rates by applying the next generation method to the susceptible, exposed, infectious, removed model. We calculated R (0) for transmission within each species and between each pair of species using camera trap data in order to identify pairwise interactions that contributed the most to transmission in an ecological community. We estimated which species, or species pairs, could maintain transmission ([Formula: see text]) and which species, or species pairs, had contact rates too low for maintenance ([Formula: see text]). Our results identified multiple urban carnivores as candidate species for rabies maintenance throughout Ethiopia, with hyenas exhibiting the greatest risk for rabies maintenance through intra‐species transmission. Hyenas and cats had the greatest risk for rabies maintenance through inter‐species transmission. Urban and peri‐urban sites posed the greatest risk for rabies transmission. The night‐time hours presented the greatest risk for a contact event that could result in rabies transmission. Overall, both intra‐ and inter‐species contacts posed risk for rabies maintenance. Our results can be used to target future studies and inform population management decisions.