DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Disease Invasion Dynamics: Brucella abortus and Mycobacterium bovis in African Buffalo

共同感染的病原体之间的相互作用在野生动物种群中很常见，每种病原体都有可能相互影响？s传输。 在非洲布法罗中，疾病相互作用可能具有重要的社会和经济后果，因为布法罗是布鲁氏菌病和牛结核病的主要宿主。 布鲁杆菌病和结核病都是细菌感染，在野生动物保护区周围的地区，如南非克鲁格国家公园的边界，在溢出感染牛期间引起显著的发病率。 牛结核病是最近在20世纪80年代才引入克鲁格国家公园的布法罗种群的，因此它对布法罗种群和布鲁氏菌病传播的影响尚不清楚。 如果牛结核病导致合并感染动物的死亡率增加，则可能减少布鲁氏菌病的传播，或者如果其引起的免疫抑制增强布鲁氏菌病的传播，则可能增加布鲁氏菌病的传播。 本项目旨在了解牛结核病引起的免疫抑制和死亡率增加如何影响布鲁氏菌病的传播。 该项目将联合收割机结合免疫学工具来研究个体布法罗中的病原体相互作用，并利用数学模型从个体宿主扩大规模，以预测疾病在布法罗中传播的群体规模后果。该项目将通过在非洲和俄勒冈州州立大学兽医学院的合作和推广，加强兽医和生态学家之间的联系。 了解野生动物疾病相互作用的机制和后果需要这些领域之间的整合，因为它们提供了不同的视角和技术。 该项目的结果将对一般野生动物疾病的管理和预测新病原体在野生动物宿主中的后果产生实际影响。

Interactions between co-infecting pathogens are common in wildlife populations and each pathogen has the potential to affect one another?s transmission. In African buffalo, disease interactions may have important social and economic consequences because buffalo are the main reservoirs of brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis. Both brucellosis and tuberculosis are bacterial infections that cause significant morbidity during spill-over infections to cattle in areas surrounding wildlife preserves, such as on the borders of Kruger National Park, South Africa. Bovine tuberculosis was only recently introduced into Kruger National Park's buffalo population in the 1980s, so its effects on both the buffalo population as well as on brucellosis transmission are unknown. Bovine tuberculosis may reduce the spread of brucellosis if it causes increased mortality in co-infected animals or may increase the spread of brucellosis if the immune suppression it causes enhances the transmission of brucellosis. This project aims to understand how the immune-suppression and increased mortality caused by Bovine tuberculosis affect brucellosis transmission. The project will combine immunological tools to investigate pathogen interactions in individual buffalo, with mathematical models to scale up from individual hosts to predict population scale consequences for disease transmission in buffalo. This project will foster stronger linkage between veterinarians and ecologists through collaborations, and outreach in Africa and at the veterinary school at Oregon State University. Understanding the mechanisms and consequences of wildlife disease interactions requires integration between these fields as they offer different perspectives and techniques. Results from this project will have practical implications for management of wildlife diseases in general and for predicting the consequences of new pathogens in their wildlife reservoirs.