US-UK Collab: Ecological and socio-economic factors impacting maintenance and dissemination of antibiotic resistance in the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem

细菌的抗生素耐药性是人类和兽医学的重大挑战。这个问题是多方面的，也是全球性的。耐药性继续在地方范围内发展和扩大，而旅行和贸易将抗生素耐药性带到全球竞技场。 该项目将产生关于生态和社会经济因素影响抗生素耐药性性状命运的机制的关键但目前缺失的知识。该研究将在坦桑尼亚大塞伦盖蒂生态系统的三个生态不同区域进行，由一个多学科和国际团队在分子生物学，疾病生态学，定量建模，社会经济和人种学学科方面拥有专业知识。它包括来自保罗G。美国艾伦全球动物卫生学院和华盛顿州立大学人类学系;联合王国格拉斯哥大学和伦敦大学皇家兽医学院;坦桑尼亚野生动物研究所和区域兽医调查中心。其目标是了解抗生素耐药性如何受到社区内部和社区之间的连通性模式的影响，这些模式来自共享资源，如水;人口密度及其对人类和牲畜之间相互作用的影响;以及通过社区之间贸易的动物运动。核心假设是，人类和牲畜种群中抗生素耐药性的流行和多样性主要是由各种宿主种群内和之间的耐药性传播和持续性解释的，而不是直接使用抗生素，导致人类和牲畜种群中相似的抗生素耐药性模式和基因库。64，000株大肠埃希菌的耐药性分析将对来自30个研究社区的样本进行人类、牲畜和野生动物大肠杆菌的分离和这些分离物子集的分子特征鉴定。将在家庭和社区两级收集社会经济和人种学数据。除了提供有关抗生素使用行为的信息外，这些数据还将被纳入一个生态建模过程，该过程将调查耐药性状的多样性及其时空分布和可能的传播途径。该项目基于“同一个健康”的前提，同时考虑人类和动物的健康和福利。在经济和粮食安全高度依赖牲畜健康和福利的农村社区，这一点尤其重要。该项目的研究结果将对政策设计和执行产生直接影响，以控制抗生素耐药性的全球出现和传播，这是一项超越国家和国际边界的挑战。该项目还支持国际研究合作，并在美国，英国和坦桑尼亚培训博士后研究人员和研究生。

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a significant challenge to both human and veterinary medicine. The problem is both multifaceted and global. Resistance continues to evolve and amplify at local scales while travel and trade bring antibiotic resistance to the global arena. This project will produce crucial but currently missing knowledge about the mechanisms by which ecological and socioeconomic factors impact the fate of antibiotic resistance traits. The research will be carried out in three ecologically distinct zones of the greater Serengeti ecosystem of Tanzania by a multi-disciplinary and international team with expertise in molecular biology, disease ecology, quantitative modeling, socio-economic and ethnographic disciplines. It includes researchers from the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health and the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University in the United States; the University of Glasgow and the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London in the United Kingdom; and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute and the Zonal Veterinary Investigation Centre in Tanzania. The goal is to understand how antibiotic resistance is impacted by patterns of connectivity within and between communities, arising from shared resources such as water; population density and its effect on interactions between human and livestock; and animal movements via trade between communities. The central hypothesis is that the prevalence and diversity of antibiotic resistance in human and livestock populations is primarily explained by the dissemination and persistence of resistance within and between various host populations, rather than by direct use of antibiotics, leading to similar antibiotic resistance patterns and gene pools in human and livestock populations. Antibiotic resistance characterization of 64,000 isolates of E. coli from humans, livestock and wildlife and molecular characterization of a subset of these isolates will be carried out on samples from 30 study communities. Socio-economic and ethnographic data will be collected at both the household and community levels. Besides providing information about antibiotic use behaviors, these data will be incorporated into an ecological modeling process that will investigate the diversity of resistance traits and their spatio-temporal distribution and probable dissemination pathways between reservoirs.The project is based on the "One Health" premise that simultaneously considers both human and animal health and welfare. This is particularly important in rural communities where economic and food security is highly dependent on the health and welfare of livestock. The findings from this project will have direct implications for policy design and execution to control the global emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance, a challenge that transcends national and international borders. The project also supports international research collaboration and the training of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Tanzania.