Development of a Theoretical Basis for Modeling Disease Processes in Marine Invertebrates

如何在海洋无脊椎动物种群中发起和终止家畜流行病，以及这一进程如何得到传播的支持，这一一般性问题为扩大对海洋疾病暴发的评估提供了基础。解决这一问题需要建立海洋系统中无脊椎动物之间疾病传播的理论框架。这一框架将有助于全面增进对海洋传染病生态学(EMID)的了解。这项提案概述了一项综合的实验和建模工作，将为海洋无脊椎动物疾病提供一般理论。该模型将以东方牡蛎(Crassostrea Virgiica)中由Perkinsus marinus引起的皮尔莫病为实验系统。然而，该模型将适用于其活动限于小规模的所有固着或近固着物种(例如双壳类、腹足类、海胆、珊瑚)以及从河口到泻湖到珊瑚礁的一系列水动力系统。这个项目是跨学科的，跨越了几个学科。该团队在软体动物病理学和动物动物学、遗传学以及海岸和河口系统、疾病过程和遗传环境的建模方面拥有独特的专业知识，并拥有长期成功的合作研究历史。通过整合我们跨学科的专业知识，该项目有望为传染病的疾病传播过程提供新的见解，而传统的以接触率为基础的易感感染抵抗模型无法很好地描述这些过程。在模拟疾病传播方面的这一缺陷普遍存在于许多固着海洋生物的分类群中。该项目还响应了环境管理和开发署讲习班提出的建议，即制定可应用于具体系统的海洋疾病一般框架，并了解疾病传播的决定因素和环境因素传播病原体的决定因素。该项目的成果将为建立海洋系统疾病和疾病传播模型的理论基础提供重要的进展。该项目将有助于对学生和早期职业科学家进行遗传学、病理学、基因组学以及人口和循环模型等学科的培训，这些学科是解决与渔业和海洋沿海系统有关的许多重要问题所必需的。项目成果将通过科学会议、同行评议文献出版物和网站传播。项目成果将通过STEM教育部和老道明大学沿海物理海洋学中心之间的合作外联方案，用于正在进行的外联工作。将通过特拉华州河口伙伴关系和海湾探索项目进行更多的外联活动，这两个组织参与了特拉华湾的公共外联活动。

The general question of how epizootics are initiated and terminated in marine invertebrate populations and how this process is supported by transmission provides a basis for expanding the evaluation of marine disease outbreaks. Addressing this question requires development of a theoretical framework for disease transmission among invertebrates in marine systems. Such a framework will contribute to the general advancement of the understanding of the Ecology of Marine Infectious Diseases (EMID). This proposal outlines a combined experimental and modeling effort that will provide a general theory for marine invertebrate diseases. The model will be informed using Dermo disease, caused by Perkinsus marinus, in Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica), as an experimental system. However, the model will be applicable to all sessile or nearly sessile species whose movement is restricted to small scales (e.g. bivalves, gastropods, sea urchins, corals) and to a range of hydrodynamic regimes from estuaries to lagoons to coral reef tracts. This project is interdisciplinary and is integrated across several disciplines. The team has a unique mixture of expertise in molluscan pathology and epizootiology, genetics, and modeling of coastal and estuarine systems, disease processes and the genetic milieu, as well as a long history of successful collaborative research. By integrating our expertise across disciplines, this project promises to provide novel insights into the disease transmission process for infectious diseases that are poorly described by traditional susceptible-infected-resistant models built upon contact rates. This deficiency in modeling disease transmission is widespread across many taxa of sessile marine organisms. The project also responds to the recommendations in EMID workshops for the development of general frameworks for marine diseases that can be applied to specific systems and to understanding the determinants of transmission of diseases and the spread of pathogens by environmental factors. The results of this project will provide an important advancement in the theoretical basis for modeling diseases and disease transmission in marine systems. This project will contribute to the training of students and early career scientists in disciplines of genetics, pathology, genomics, and population and circulation modeling that is needed to solve many of the important problems associated with fisheries and marine coastal systems. Project results will be disseminated through scientific conferences, publication in the peer-review literature, and websites. Project results will be used in ongoing outreach efforts through a collaborative outreach program between the Department of STEM Education and the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography at Old Dominion University. Additional outreach will be through the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and the Bayshore Discovery Project, organizations engaged in public outreach for Delaware Bay.