EID: Effects of Deforestation on the Prevalence of Blood-Borne Pathogens in African Rainforest Birds.

加州大学洛杉矶分校、旧金山州立大学、喷气推进实验室/NASA、加州大学戴维斯分校和立陶宛维尔纽斯大学生态研究所的研究人员将对砍伐森林对非洲热带雨林鸟类传播传染病的影响进行研究。在过去的13年里，研究人员收集了来自喀麦隆、象牙海岸和乌干达不同栖息地的200多种热带雨林鸟类的4000多个个体血液样本。值得注意的是，这些样本都是在栖息地退化之前和之后收集的，这使得能够对人类引起的栖息地改变的直接影响进行独特的检查。利用血液涂片分析和分子生物学的互补技术，将对样本进行疟疾、锥虫病、丝虫病和结核病的病原体分析。鸟类的这些疾病与人类疾病的病理非常相似，这使得对鸟类的研究成为一个很好的模型系统。我们将使用卫星图像数据来预测森林构成的变化可能如何影响未来疾病的传播。森林砍伐对健康的影响是多种多样的，随着最近通过动物传播给人类的几种疾病的高调爆发，这种影响变得越来越明显。这一研究项目意义重大，因为它将开发预测森林砍伐将如何影响未来疾病爆发的模型，并促进重新造林战略的制定。此外，这项研究将涉及为少数族裔服务的美国机构以及国外、立陶宛和非洲的学生和研究人员的培训。

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, San Francisco State University, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA, the University of California, Davis, and the Institute of Ecology at Vilnius University, Lithuania, will conduct a study of the effects of deforestation on the spread of infectious diseases in African rainforest birds. During the past 13 years, researchers have collected more than 4,000 individual blood samples from over 200 rainforest bird species in a variety of habitats across Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, and Uganda. Significantly, the samples were collected from sites both before and after habitat degradation, permitting a unique examination of the direct effects of human-induced habitat alterations. Using complementary techniques of blood smear analysis and molecular biology, samples will be assayed for the pathogens that cause malaria, trypanosomiasis, filiariasis, and tuberculosis. These diseases in birds have very similar pathologies to their human counterparts, making the study of birds an excellent model system. We will use satellite imagery data to predict how changes in forest composition may affect the spread of diseases in the future. The effects of deforestation on health are diverse and are becoming increasingly apparent with the highly publicized recent outbreaks of several diseases spread to humans by animals. This research project is significant because it will develop models to predict how deforestation will influence future disease outbreaks and facilitate development of reforestation strategies. In addition, the research will involve the training of students and researchers at U.S. institutions serving minorities, and abroad, in Lithuania and Africa.