Fear, Food, and Infections: Linking Host Behavior to Disease Transmission in the Ranavirus-Salamander System

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Jesse L. Brunner, Proposal EF- 0914418, Fear, Food, and Infections: Linking Host Behavior to Disease Transmission in the Ranavirus-Salamander System.Detailed knowledge of how infectious agents are transmitted is key to predicting whether an infectious disease will invade, persist, and spread, and to designing control strategies.. Yet we know very little about how transmission works in real world systems. Much of our present understanding stems from models that assume hosts contact each other randomly, like molecules colliding in a chemical reaction. Animals are not molecules; they mate, forage, fight, and flock, and these behaviors can drive the spread of disease. This project will use a salamander-virus model system coupled with simple mathematical models to evaluate how common host behaviors, such as foraging for food and avoiding predators, shape transmission dynamics. Experiments are proposed to evaluate how certain host behaviors (e.g., by introducing a predator) influence the spread of a virus through the population. For instance, one would predict that when animals aggregate together in the face of a predator, disease transmission will increase. Alternatively, when hosts reduce their movements (e.g., when hiding) transmission may slow.This study will provide the foundation for a predictive, behavior-based theory of disease transmission. This study may also lead to novel ways of intervening in disease outbreaks (e.g., by carefully arranging food resources or refuges from predators). The investigator will offer short workshops on wildlife disease epidemiology and modeling to students and wildlife professionals, and train undergraduate and graduate researchers in behavioral ecology, disease ecology, epidemiology and statistics, as well as in laboratory and field methods.