Modeling disease transmission using spatial mapping of vector-parasite genetics and vector feeding patterns

该奖项支持开发南美锥虫病传播动力学的创新模型。查加斯病是拉丁美洲的一种寄生虫病，估计有1 000万人患病。病原体是一种原生动物，克氏锥虫。原生动物最常见的是通过吸血昆虫传播给人类，这些昆虫的数量在新近砍伐森林和部分重新造林的热带地区增加。在这个项目中，来自佛蒙特大学，新奥尔良洛约拉大学和危地马拉圣卡洛斯卡洛斯大学的科学家团队将采取一种新的多学科方法来了解查加斯病如何在地方和区域范围内传播。虽然以前的研究已经发现了单一因素与恰加斯病之间的联系，但这将是第一次将多个影响因素汇集在一个模型中，以便确定潜在的过程。研究将在危地马拉-萨尔瓦多萨尔瓦多边境沿着的三个地点进行，这些地点在景观，社会经济和疾病传播特征方面存在显着差异。在每个地区的三个村庄，科学家将收集和地理地图上的寄生虫和病媒遗传多样性信息;土地使用生态学;森林干扰;血液来源;和社会经济特征，如住房类型，家畜的存在和电灯的使用。根据这些数据，他们将开发，测试和验证查加斯病传播方式的新模型。一旦得到验证，这些模型就可以扩展到预测许多其他病媒传播疾病的传播，这些疾病无论在哪里发现都会影响人类，每年累计造成约140万人死亡，这项研究的结果将与危地马拉卫生部和泛美卫生组织分享，以通报他们正在进行的遏制拉丁美洲恰加斯病浪潮的努力。研究人员将在科学期刊上发表论文，并将他们的基因组数据库和地理参考复杂系统工具提供给其他研究人员。这项研究还将通过基因组学、人口和分子遗传学、地理空间分析和复杂系统建模方面的培训，使路易斯安那州、佛蒙特州、危地马拉和萨尔瓦多的研究生和本科生受益。

This award supports the development of an innovative model of the transmission dynamics of Chagas disease. Chagas disease is a parasitic disease endemic to Latin America that afflicts an estimated 10 million people. The causative agent is a protozoa, Trypanosoma cruzi. The protozoa is most commonly transmitted to people by bloodsucking insects whose populations increase in newly deforested and partially re-forested tropical regions. In this project, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont, the Loyola University New Orleans, and the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, will take a new, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how Chagas is transmitted at both the local and regional scales. While previous research has found connections between single factors and Chagas disease, this will be the first time that multiple contributing factors have been brought together in a single model so that the underlying processes can be identified.The research will be conducted in three localities along the Guatemala-El Salvador border that differ significantly in landscape, socioeconomic, and disease transmission characteristic. In three villages in each region, the scientists will collect and geographically map information on parasite and vector genetic diversity; land use ecology; forest disturbance; blood meal sources; and socio-economic characteristics such as housing type, presence of domestic animals, and use of electric lights. From these data they will develop, test, and validate new models of how Chagas disease transmission. Once validated, these models can then be extended to predict transmission of the many other vector-borne diseases that affect human beings wherever they are found and that cumulatively produce about 1.4 million deaths annually.Findings from this research will be shared with the Guatemalan Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organization to inform their ongoing efforts to stem the tide of Chagas disease in Latin America. The researchers will publish papers in scientific journals and will make their genomic databases and geo-referenced complex systems tools available to other researchers. This research will also benefit graduate and undergraduate students in Louisiana, Vermont, Guatemala and El Salvador through training in genomics, population and molecular genetics, geospatial analysis, and complex systems modeling.