Urbanization and Macroparasite Infection of Amphibians

城市化与两栖动物的大型寄生虫感染

• 批准号: 0640892
• 负责人: David Skelly
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-05-15 至 2010-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0640892&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Urbanization; Macroparasite; Infection; Amphibians

Understanding long term trends in infection and disease is hindered by the lack of methods capable of estimating their frequency in the past. In this project, investigators will adapt ultrasound imaging technology developed for biomedical purposes to examine the history of infection and disease in wildlife. The research will take advantage of the many thousands of specimens held by natural history museums to evaluate, specifically, whether there is an association between development of the environment by humans and the rates and intensities of infection and disease in amphibians. A link between development and disease has been inferred, but data to test the association are sparse.Funding of this project leverages both the enormous investments made in the pursuit of biomedical advances as well as the prior efforts of museum based scientists. The combination of an advanced imaging technique and the traditional practice of natural history will promote the nondestructive use of irreplaceable museum specimens. The investigators also propose to use safe, quick ultrasound imaging techniques on live animals reducing the need to sacrifice animals to evaluate infection and its consequences. Collectively, the research will illuminate a poorly understood relationship between human use of the environment and the consequences for natural systems.

了解感染和疾病的长期趋势受到过去缺乏能够估计其频率的方法的阻碍。 在这个项目中，研究人员将采用为生物医学目的开发的超声成像技术来检查野生动物的感染和疾病史。 这项研究将利用自然历史博物馆保存的数千个标本来评估，特别是人类对环境的发展与两栖动物感染和疾病的速度和强度之间是否存在联系。 发展和疾病之间的联系已经被推断出来，但测试这种联系的数据很少。该项目的资金利用了在追求生物医学进步方面的巨大投资以及博物馆科学家的先前努力。 先进的成像技术与自然历史的传统实践相结合，将促进不可替代的博物馆标本的非破坏性使用。 研究人员还建议在活体动物上使用安全，快速的超声成像技术，减少牺牲动物来评估感染及其后果的需要。 总的来说，这项研究将阐明人类对环境的利用与自然系统后果之间的关系。