Dissertation Research: The Dynamics of Multi-host Pathogen Systems: Rabies Ecology in Tanzania and Implications for Control

在野生动物、牲畜和人之间传播的疾病对公共卫生、畜牧业和野生动物保护具有重要影响。狂犬病是一种影响所有哺乳动物的致命神经疾病，我们对狂犬病生态学的理解几乎完全建立在欧洲和北美的研究基础上，那里的狂犬病很少威胁到人类的生命。狂犬病在整个发展中世界造成严重后果；每年有数千人死亡，维持生计的社区遭受家畜损失的严重影响，暴露后治疗的经济负担相当大，该疾病已导致濒危野生动物局部灭绝。将通过收集坦桑尼亚持续流行期间的高分辨率时空数据；整理区域发病记录；估计受感染物种的丰度、分布和人口统计学，并将这些数据纳入评估疾病管理战略有效性的理论框架，来探索狂犬病的生态。通过实证分析和理论分析相结合，本研究将有助于传染病生态学的理论研究。通过与当地社区成员、兽医和医疗服务机构、政府官员、保护组织和政策制定者的参与，该项目将促进沟通，加强伙伴关系，建设科学、兽医和医疗能力，并教育社区，为人畜共患疾病控制的可持续解决方案做出贡献。结果将被广泛传播，为当地和国际政策提供信息，并提高这种报告不足的疾病的形象。最终，这项研究将促进对感染动态中被忽视的方面的理解，并制定更好的抗击狂犬病的战略。本项目支持一位女性博士生的学位论文研究。

Diseases that are transmitted between wildlife, livestock and people have important implications for public health, livestock husbandry, and wildlife conservation. Our understanding of the ecology of rabies, a fatal neurological disease that affects all mammals, is based almost entirely on studies from Europe and North America where rabies rarely threatens human life. Across the developing world rabies has severe consequences; thousands of people die annually, subsistence communities suffer acute impacts from domestic animal losses, the economic burden of post-exposure treatment is considerable and the disease has caused localized extinctions of endangered wildlife. The ecology of rabies will be explored by collecting high resolution spatial and temporal data during an ongoing epidemic in Tanzania; collating regional incidence records; estimating abundance, distribution, and demography of infected species and incorporating these data into a theoretical framework to evaluate the effectiveness of disease management strategies. By combining empirical and theoretical analyses, this study will contribute to the theory of infectious disease ecology. Through involvement with local community members, veterinary and medical services, government officials, conservation organizations and policy makers, this project will facilitate communication, reinforce partnerships, build scientific, veterinary and medical capacity and educate communities, contributing towards sustainable solutions for zoonotic disease control. Results will be disseminated widely to inform local and international policy and raise the profile of this underreported disease. Ultimately, this research will promote understanding of neglected aspects of infection dynamics and development of better strategies to combat rabies. This project supports the dissertation research of a female doctoral candidate.