The city as a laboratory
Keywords:
Circadian rhythms, zoonotic surveillance, viral metagenomics, One HealthAbstract
Cities are ecosystems where rats, pigeons, and bats can function as “living sensors” of biological change. By living among waste, water, food sources, pets, and sewers, they accumulate traces that can reveal early warning signs of risk. This article proposes getting ahead of potential problems through simple, non-invasive sampling, before cases of infection or outbreaks appear in people and animals, or signs of environmental deterioration emerge. These signals include microbes, viruses, and fragments of genetic material. Integrated across several layers, they can be summarized in a zone-based traffic-light system that measures the level of attention required in each area.
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