Spatial interactions between livestock and their environment as a determinant of parasitic disease risk.

寄生虫给世界范围内的养羊业造成了巨大的损失，并对动物的福利产生了重大的不利影响。药物的过度使用导致了一些具有重要经济意义的寄生虫的耐药性，提倡采用一种更可持续的方法，只治疗高度感染的个体。然而，通过实验室测量（如粪便虫卵计数）来评估感染是昂贵的。该项目将开发利用全球定位系统项圈和加速计监测绵羊行为的方法，以便了解空间使用与感染风险之间的关系，空间使用如何随着寄生虫负荷的增加而变化，寄生虫负荷如何影响绵羊的活动以及绵羊个体之间的相互作用方式。最后，您将设计并进行对照田间实验，以测试抗寄生虫药物对这些参数的影响，以确定寄生虫负荷对行为的影响是否可以逆转。该项目将重点关注胃肠道线虫，如Teladorsagia circumcincta，肝吸虫（其蜗牛中间宿主喜欢潮湿的环境）和蜱（喜欢边缘栖息地和粗糙的放牧，并携带几种重要的疾病）。在所有三名主管的大力支持下，将有大量的实地工作和数据分析。试点项目将建立在现有的关于栖息地利用与蜱虫和线虫风险的研究，以及在动物行为研究中使用GPS数据的基础上。您将获得广泛技能的培训，包括福利指标和寄生虫负荷的评估，采样微栖息地以有效地绘制田间风险区域，实地观察行为以证实GPS数据，数据分析以从GPS坐标数据中提取潜在的行为指标，和统计分析，以探索寄生虫负荷如何与空间使用和移动有关。尽管寄生虫对一系列物种的动物行为有许多影响，但在畜牧业中很少利用行为测定来评估感染及其后果。该项目将通过利用技术监测行为并评估行为与寄生虫感染之间的相互作用来开辟新天地。该项目的一个主要长期目标是开发可用于现实世界环境的感染风险和寄生虫负荷的行为指标。

Parasites cause massive losses to the sheep industry worldwide and have major detrimental effectson the welfare of animals. Overuse of drugs has led to resistance in a number of economically-important parasites, and a more sustainable approach of only treating highly infected individuals isadvocated. However, assessing infection from laboratory-based measurements such as faecal eggcounts is costly. This project will develop the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) collars andaccelerometers to monitor sheep behaviour, in order to understand how space use is related to riskof infection, how space use changes with increased parasite load, and how parasite load affectsmovement and the ways in which individual sheep interact with one another. Finally, you will designand carry out controlled field experiments to test the effects of anti-parasite drugs on theseparameters, to determine whether the effects of parasite load on behaviour can be reversed.The project will focus on gastrointestinal nematodes such as Teladorsagia circumcincta, the liver fluke(whose snail intermediate host prefers wet environments), and ticks (which prefer edge habitat andrough grazing, and carry several important diseases). There will be large components of both fieldworkand data analysis, with significant support from all three supervisors. Pilot projects will build onexisting studies relating habitat use to tick and nematode risk, and on use of GPS data in animalbehaviour studies.You will gain training in a wide range of skills, including assessment of welfare indicators and parasiteload, sampling microhabitats to effectively map at-risk areas in fields, field observations of behaviourto corroborate GPS data, data analysis to extract potential behavioural indicators from GPS coordinatedata, and statistical analysis to explore how parasite load is associated with space use and movement.There is little utilisation of behavioural assays in livestock husbandry to assess infection and itsconsequences, despite the numerous effects parasites have on animal behaviour in a range of species.This project will break new ground by harnessing technology to monitor behaviour and assess theinteraction between behaviour and parasite infection. A major long-term goal of the project is todevelop behavioural indicators for infection risk and parasite load which can be utilised in real-worldsettings.