CNH2-L: Social and ecological determinants of multi-host vector-borne infections in dynamic tropical landscapes

这项研究考察了人类活动，包括砍伐森林和重新造林，对两种引起公共卫生关注的病媒传播疾病——恰加斯病（CD）和美国皮肤利什曼病（ACL）的影响。乳糜泻会导致心脏病，而ACL会导致皮肤损伤，这种损伤会持续数月至数年。该项目还调查了生态变化、疾病传播、风险管理实践和公共政策如何同时影响人类活动。项目调查人员阐明了人畜共患病原体在不断变化的景观中的动态如何取决于社会和环境条件之间复杂的相互作用。由于许多病媒传播的疾病正在扩大其范围，该项目为公共卫生官员提供了预测乳糜泻、ACL和其他病媒传播疾病向北蔓延所需的数据和策略。通过与戈尔加斯纪念卫生研究所合作，该项目改进了对人类健康有直接影响的病媒控制和疾病管理政策。该项目向美国和巴拿马的本科生、研究生和专业学生以及公共卫生工作者提供教育和培训。本研究通过整合疾病生态学和社会科学，促进了社会环境系统动力学的进步。在疾病生态学中，人们越来越关注与毁林有关的人畜共患疾病出现的生态驱动因素的理论和实证研究，与此同时，在社会科学中，关于热带森林变化的经济和文化驱动因素及其应对措施的知识也在不断增加。然而，随着许多病媒传播疾病的范围扩大到热带以外，迫切需要综合这方面的知识。研究人员将社会和生态理论整合到模型指导的实证研究中，分析了动态热带森林景观中同时发生的媒介传播的人畜共患疾病，恰加斯病（CD）和美国皮肤利什曼病（ACL）。利用理论种群生物学、野外生态学、兽医流行病学和社会科学的研究方法，这个多学科小组开发了一个新的可转移框架，用于表示土地转换、相关人类活动、生态群落及其与媒介传播疾病传播的关系的组合。将利用生态和社会调查收集数据，并利用土地利用变化和疾病传播的计算机模型将这些数据综合起来。研究主要集中在三个问题上：(1)哪些人为因素和环境因素决定了寄生虫在生境类型中的传播和人类暴露？(2)土地转换的时间和历史如何影响ACL和CD的传播？(3)是什么决定了人类对不同土地类型感染风险的认知和行为？第一个问题将通过确定相对媒介丰度（通过收集沙蝇和吻蝽媒介）、从家庭中抽取家犬作为CD和ACL的监测点、从家庭和媒介栖息地收集小气候数据以及通过直接观察和家庭访谈收集人为数据来回答。为了回答第二个问题，调查人员将汇编和分析历史卫星图像、航空照片、区域土地记录、ACL和CD存在的公共卫生记录、媒介栖息地分布数据，并调查公共卫生官员，以确定自森林砍伐增加以来，人类对CD和ACL的认识如何随着时间的推移而变化。第三个问题将使用家庭调查和当地卫生系统的数据进行评估，比较自森林砍伐以来的反应时间和ACL和cd的估计感染风险。该奖项反映了国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research examines the effects of human activity, including deforestation and reforestation, on the transmission of two vector-borne diseases of public health concern, Chagas Disease (CD) and American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL). CD causes heart disease, while ACL causes skin lesions that can be painful and persist for months to years. This project also investigates how ecological changes, disease transmission, risk management practices, and public policy simultaneously affect human activity. Project investigators elucidate how the dynamics of zoonotic pathogens in changing landscapes depend on complex interactions between social and environmental conditions. As many vector-borne diseases are expanding their ranges, this project provides public health officials data and strategies needed to anticipate the northward advance of CD, ACL, and other vector-borne diseases. Through collaboration with the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, this project improves vector-control and disease management policies, with a direct impact on human health. This project provides education and training to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, as well as public health workers, in the United States and Panama. This research contributes to advancements in the dynamics of socio-environmental systems by integrating disease ecology and social sciences. There has been increasing attention in disease ecology to theoretical and empirical studies of the ecological drivers of deforestation-associated zoonotic disease emergence, while at the same time in the social sciences there is growing knowledge about the economic and cultural drivers of, and responses to, forest change in the tropics. However, there is urgency in synthesizing this knowledge as the range for many vector-borne diseases expands out of the tropics. The investigators integrate social and ecological theory in model-guided empirical research that analyzes co-occurring vector-borne zoonotic diseases, Chagas Disease (CD) and American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL), in dynamic tropical forest landscapes. Using research methodologies from theoretical population biology, field ecology, veterinary epidemiology, and the social sciences, this multidisciplinary team develops a new and transferable framework for representing the combination of land conversion, related human activities, ecological communities, as well as their relationship to vector-borne disease transmission. Data will be gathered using ecological and social surveys, and these will be integrated using a computer model for land use change and disease transmission. The research focuses on three questions: (1) What human and environmental factors determine parasite transmission and human exposure within habitat types? (2) How does the timing and history of land conversion affect ACL and CD transmission? (3) What determines human perceptions and behaviors relating to infection risk across land types? The first question will be answered by determining relative vector abundance (by collecting sand-fly and kissing bug vectors), sampling domestic dogs from households as sentinels for CD and ACL, gathering microclimate data from households and vector habitats, and gathering anthropogenic data from direct observation and household interviews. To answer the second question, investigators will compile and analyze historical satellite imagery, air photos, regional land records, public health records on ACL and CD presence, data on vector habitat distribution, and survey public health officials to determine how human awareness of CD and ACL may change as length of time since deforestation increases. The third question will be assessed using a household survey and data from the local health system, comparing responses to time since deforestation and estimated infection risk from ACL and CD.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.