Effects of land-use changes and diet on the viral and bacterial load of black-backed jackals and bat-eared foxes in Namibia - a metagenomics approach to understand the ecological and molecular attributes affecting population health in important pathogen r

人为的土地利用改变被认为是对野生动物的压力，对健康状况有负面影响。它还促进了野生动物和人类相关牲畜之间的接触，潜在地影响了病原体的传播率，这可能是威胁我们生物多样性的新传染病数量增加的原因之一。在纳米比亚中部的农田中，我们想要调查两种普遍的土地利用模式(畜牧业和狩猎业)和相关的动物群落如何影响南部非洲两种主要犬科动物的健康状况，这两种犬类是杂食性黑背狼(Canis Mesomelas)和食虫-果食性蝙蝠耳狐(Otocyon Megalotis)。两者都被认为是重要的病原体储存库和病媒，在改良的栖息地中也大量存在。我们将使用元基因组学方法，应用下一代测序技术来鉴定、量化和比较整个病毒(病毒)和细菌群落(微生物组)。与其他野生动物和牲畜的接触率将由戴着无线电项圈的个人调查。此外，我们的目标是对这两个物种的免疫基因变异性(MHC)进行分型，并使用高通量方法和多变量统计分析它们对病原体负载的影响。我们的研究将增加我们对影响宿主和潜在媒介物种种群健康的生态和分子属性以及病毒和细菌疾病的物种障碍的理解。这将有助于避免将根除计划作为疾病暴发期间的管理工具。

Anthropogenic land-use modification is supposed to stress wildlife with negative effects on health conditions. It also facilitates the contact between wildlife and human associated livestock potentially affecting the transmission rate of pathogens which might be one reason for the increasing number of novel infectious diseases threatening our biodiversity. In the farmlands of central Namibia, we want to investigate how two prevalent modes of land-use (livestock versus game farming) and associated animal communities affect the health status of two prominent canids of southern Africa, the omnivorous black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) and the insectivorous-frugivorous bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis). Both have been blamed as important pathogen reservoirs and vectors and are abundant also in modified habitats. We will use a metagenomics approach applying next-generation sequencing technologies to qualify, quantify and compare the whole virus (virome) and bacteria community (microbiome). The contact rates with other wildlife and livestock will be investigated by radio-collared individuals. Furthermore, we aim to genotype the immune gene variability (MHC) of both species and to analyse their impact on the pathogen load also using high-throughput methods and multivariate statistics. Our study will increase our understanding of the ecological and molecular attributes affecting population health of host and potential vector species as well as species barriers in viral and bacterial diseases. This will contribute to avoid eradication programs as a management tool during disease outbreaks.