Demographic and behavioral responses to resource shifts and the transmission of rabies in vampire bats

吸血蝙蝠对资源转移和狂犬病传播的人口和行为反应

• 批准号: 1020966
• 负责人: Sonia Altizer
• 金额: $ 57.99万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1020966&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Demographic; behavioral; responses; resource; shifts

Infectious diseases have increased in prevalence and expanded their geographic distribution in recent decades, and it has been hypothesized that this is a result of disturbances to ecosystem structure and biodiversity. This project considers a case study of this phenomenon by examining how the expanding livestock rearing industry in Latin America affects interactions between common vampire bats and their directly transmitted rabies viruses. Vampire bats are distributed throughout much of Latin America, where they often exist in high densities due to their opportunistic use of livestock as a novel and abundant food source. This project will monitor a series of field sites in Peru to ask how livestock density affects vampire bat abundance and rabies transmission. Genetic studies of vampire bats will estimate population sizes and movement rates of bats within and between livestock rearing and forested areas. Mathematical models will be developed and used to analyze how human activities that affect vampire bat density and dispersal also affect rabies dynamics. These models will be parameterized using data from experimental infection studies with captive vampire bats, designed to examine the time course of infection, including recovery and immunity, for which limited data currently exist. The investigators predict that by increasing vampire bat abundance and movement rates, supplemental resources in the form of livestock will cause rabies to shift from causing rare but large outbreaks in forest bat populations to constant persistence at low prevalence in livestock areas. Because deforestation, urbanization and livestock rearing are intensifying in much of the developing world, a better understanding of how wildlife-pathogen interactions will respond to such changes is needed urgently. This project will contribute to training and career mentoring for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and research assistants, who will each be encouraged to develop independent projects related to the project. This work continues established collaborations with the Peruvian Ministry of Health, the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture, the University of San Marcos and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; as such, this project will build a strong foundation to empower future scientific research and collaboration in a developing country. Finally, results of this study will inform rabies control efforts in Latin America, where vampire bats cause the majority of human and livestock rabies cases.

近几十年来，传染病的流行率有所上升，其地理分布范围也有所扩大，据推测，这是生态系统结构和生物多样性受到干扰的结果。 该项目通过研究拉丁美洲不断扩大的牲畜饲养业如何影响普通吸血蝙蝠与其直接传播的狂犬病病毒之间的相互作用来研究这一现象。 吸血蝙蝠分布在拉丁美洲的大部分地区，由于它们将牲畜作为一种新的丰富的食物来源，它们经常以高密度存在。 该项目将监测秘鲁的一系列野外地点，以了解牲畜密度如何影响吸血蝙蝠的数量和狂犬病的传播。 对吸血蝙蝠的遗传学研究将估计蝙蝠的种群规模和在牲畜饲养区和森林区之间的移动速度。 数学模型将被开发并用于分析人类活动如何影响吸血蝙蝠的密度和传播也影响狂犬病的动态。这些模型将使用来自圈养吸血蝙蝠实验感染研究的数据进行参数化，旨在检查感染的时间过程，包括恢复和免疫力，目前存在的数据有限。研究人员预测，通过增加吸血蝙蝠的丰度和移动速度，牲畜形式的补充资源将导致狂犬病从在森林蝙蝠种群中引起罕见但大规模的爆发转变为在牲畜区持续低流行率。由于森林砍伐、城市化和牲畜饲养在许多发展中国家正在加剧，迫切需要更好地了解野生动物-病原体相互作用将如何应对这些变化。 该项目将有助于研究生、博士后学者和研究助理的培训和职业指导，鼓励他们各自开发与该项目有关的独立项目。 这项工作继续与秘鲁卫生部，秘鲁农业部，圣马科斯大学和美国疾病控制和预防中心建立合作关系;因此，该项目将为发展中国家未来的科学研究和合作奠定坚实的基础。 最后，这项研究的结果将为拉丁美洲的狂犬病控制工作提供信息，在拉丁美洲，吸血蝙蝠引起了大多数人类和牲畜的狂犬病病例。