Dissertation Enhancement Research: Habitat Fragmentation and the Responses of Hantavirus Host Communities in Panama: A Test of the Dilution Effect Hypothesis

0241169年该美洲计划论文增强项目将支持Gerardo Suzan先生在新墨西哥大学Terry L.Yates博士的指导下进行的论文论文研究。这项研究与巴拿马戈尔加斯研究所的Armiens Blas博士合作，旨在研究人类活动导致的自然环境变化如何影响汉坦病毒肺综合症的宿主分布和在人类中爆发的风险。在最简单的形式下，稀释效应假说表明，高生物多样性降低了一些啮齿动物传播疾病的频率。如果是这样的话，几种新出现的人畜共患病可能与生物多样性的丧失有关。小型哺乳动物的物种丰富度和分布在六个受不同程度人为干扰和大小不同的巴拿马国家公园将被用来检验这一假设。初步调查表明，物种丰富度最低的是在巴拿马专门收集汉坦病毒储存库的人类占主导地位的栖息地，并指出人为干扰有利于汉坦病毒储存库的分布，并可能解释最近爆发的疫情。这项研究将建立一个不同生物群中物种分布的数据库，根据栖息地碎片化程度确定潜在的疾病风险区域，并最终增加我们对啮齿动物储存库生态学与人类活动的理解。该项目的基本结论可能适用于世界不同地区的其他媒介传播疾病。如果生物多样性和疾病风险密切相关，那么保护自然资源就变得更加重要。

0241169YatesThis Americas Program thesis enhancement project will support thesis dissertation research by Mr. Gerardo Suzan under the supervision of Dr. Terry L. Yates of the University of New Mexico. The research, in collaboration with the Dr. Armiens Blas of the Instituto Conmemorativo GORGAS in Panama, aims to study the way that changes in natural environments resulting from human activity affect the distribution of the reservoir for Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome and the risk of outbreaks in humans.In its simplest form, the dilution effect hypothesis suggests that high biodiversity reduces the frequency of some rodent-borne diseases. If so, several emerging zoonotic diseases may be related to the loss of biodiversity. Small mammal species richness and distribution in six Panamanian national parks with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance and size will be used to test this hypothesis. Preliminary surveys indicate that the lowest species richness was found in human dominated habitats where the hantavirus reservoir in Panama was exclusively collected and point to the conclusion that anthropogenic disturbance favors the hantavirus reservoir distribution, and possibly explains recent outbreaks.This study will establish a database for species distribution among different biomes, identify potential areas of highest disease risk based on the degree of habitat fragmentation, and, ultimately, increase our understanding of rodent reservoir ecology as it relates to anthropogenic activities. The basic conclusions of this project may apply to other vector-borne diseases in different regions of the world. If biodiversity and disease risks are strongly correlated, conservation of natural resources becomes even more important.