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对人类和兽医学都是一个重大挑战。这个问题是多方面的，也是全球性的。耐药性在地方范围内继续演变和扩大，而旅行和贸易将抗生素耐药性带到全球舞台。该项目将产生关键但目前缺失的关于生态和社会经济因素影响抗生素耐药性状命运的机制的知识。这项研究将在坦桑尼亚大塞伦盖蒂生态系统的三个生态截然不同的区域进行，由一个具有分子生物学、疾病生态学、定量建模、社会经济和人种学学科专业知识的多学科和国际团队进行。它包括来自美国华盛顿州立大学保罗·g·艾伦全球动物卫生学院和人类学系的研究人员；英国格拉斯哥大学和伦敦大学皇家兽医学院；以及坦桑尼亚野生动物研究所和坦桑尼亚区域兽医调查中心。目标是了解社区内部和社区之间因共享资源（如水）而产生的连通性模式如何影响抗生素耐药性；人口密度及其对人与牲畜相互作用的影响；以及通过社区之间的贸易进行的动物运动。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不同宿主种群内部和之间的耐药性传播和持续存在来解释的，而不是直接使用抗生素，导致人类和牲畜种群中出现类似的抗生素耐药性模式和基因库。将对来自人类、牲畜和野生动物的64,000株大肠杆菌进行抗生素耐药性鉴定，并对其中一部分分离株进行分子鉴定。将在家庭和社区两级收集社会经济和人种学数据。除了提供抗生素使用行为的信息外，这些数据还将被纳入生态建模过程，以研究抗性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“一个健康”的前提，同时考虑人类和动物的健康和福利。这在经济和粮食安全高度依赖牲畜健康和福利的农村社区尤为重要。该项目的研究结果将对控制抗生素耐药性的全球出现和传播的政策设计和执行产生直接影响，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以及在美国、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.