Climate-sensitive zoonotic diseases transmissible by companion animals: A scoping review protocol

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0325568 June 10, 2025 4 / 8 Inclusion criteria • Infections of companion animal zoonotic diseases in cats, dogs, and/or humans are the outcome of interest. Infection can include the presence of disease or positive tests for disease in subclinical individuals. • Meteorological factors are the primary exposure of interest. Given that climate is defined by long-term meteorological patterns, this inclusion criterion aims to capture short-term relationships between disease and meteorological factors which may provide insight into how a changing climate could impact disease risk. • Studies that examine the current or projected impacts of meteorological factors on companion animal zoonotic dis- eases in cats, dogs, and/or humans. • Primary research articles, including observational (i.e., cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort), descriptive time- series studies, descriptive spatial (or cluster detection) studies, experimental studies, and predictive studies using different climate emission scenarios. Exclusion criteria • Full-text citation is not available. • Full-text is not available in English. • Duplicate articles. • Knowledge synthesis papers, case series, and clinical reports. Methods The proposed scoping reviews will be conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology [23] for scoping reviews and Preferred Reporting Items Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) [24].

Individual protocols for companion animal and human populations are registered separately on Open Science Framework. Search strategy Three electronic academic databases, MEDLINE (via Ovid), AGRICOLA (via ProQuest), and Web of Science Core Collection, will be searched to locate eligible studies. Citation tracking will be applied to the reference lists of articles included in the scoping review to identify further research. Search results will be imported to Covidence™ for de-duplication, article screening, and data extraction. A limited initial search of MEDLINE (via Ovid) and Web of Science was conducted to identify articles relevant to climate- sensitive companion animal zoonotic diseases in cat, dog, and human populations. Using the companion animal zoonotic diseases identified by Weese and Fulford (2011) [1] and relevant articles retrieved through this initial search, a comprehensive list of index terms and keywords was developed (S1 File). The proposed search strategy will be applied to each database to retrieve both published academic research and grey literature, adjusting the search as necessary to conform with database syntaxes. An example of the search in MEDLINE (via Ovid) is available in S2 File. The search strategy was further refined through consultations with the broader research team and a research librarian at the Univer- sity of Guelph. The search strategy will not include publication date or language restrictions. Study selection In Covidence™, independent reviewers will screen the titles and abstracts against the inclusion and exclusion criteria

(Level 1), followed by a full-text screening of selected articles (Level 2). Screening questions for title/abstract and full-text