How does ecological community influence livestock parasite transmission?

生态群落如何影响牲畜寄生虫传播？

• 批准号: 2443525
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2443525
• 关键词: How; does; ecological; community; influence

Parasitic and vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are a major cause of poor animal health and reduced ruminant livestock productivity worldwide, threatening food security and sustainable livestock production. Potential impacts range from reduced weight of meat or milk produced per acreage in commercial livestock rearing systems, to the complete loss of small herds on resource-poor subsistence smallholdings. Parasite abundance and VBD transmission models have been developed that can be used to design and improve veterinary intervention programmes or grazing management to minimise disease risk. However, research and model development has largely focussed on intensively managed ruminant livestock systems, where single species are reared on primarily grass monoculture. Less attention has been given to extensive production systems where the livestock host and parasite species of interest are part of a wider ecological community e.g. communal grazing in the UK, and dryland pastoral systems in Southern Africa. In species-diverse environments such as these, the validity of recommended interventions to reduce parasitic infection is unknown. Furthermore, although wildlife present a conflict for many livestock farmers worldwide, recent studies suggest that co-grazing livestock and wildlife may be beneficial, improving forage quality, reducing tick abundance, and removing gastrointestinal nematode larvae from the environment. Further research is needed to develop intervention strategies for parasite control that take into account community ecology and the potential epidemiological impact of human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies. The student will:1. Characterise community ecology (including mammalian hosts, parasites and vegetation) in and around the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (MPNP), Botswana, with the support of the CASE partner, Elephants for Africa (EfA). EfA's longitudinal spatial datasets of mammal species presence in the MPNP will be supplemented with the student's own observations of parasite diversity in the environment and in samples collected non-invasively from mammalian hosts. Additional host-parasite associations will be extracted from the literature and an open database of ~34,000 host-tick associations6 to construct a novel network model of community structure and seasonal shared habitat use7.2. Predict the impact of community structure and intervention measures on livestock exposure to parasites and, by extension, parasitic/vector-borne disease risk in livestock. Global sensitivity analysis performed on the network model will identify candidate keystone host species and habitats and community ecology conditions which limit livestock exposure to parasites. Introducing VBD transmission3 to the network model further allows the expected efficacy of potential intervention measures to be predicted. 3. Validate model output using field observations.Model output and hypotheses developed will be tested in the field by measuring parasite abundance in the environment and intensity of infection in livestock. Potential field sites with a range of community structures can be found within easy reach of the MPNP. For example, some cattle ranches exclude all other large mammal species, apply intensive parasite control strategies and manage vegetation cover by burning, private game reserves often exclude megaherbivores but allow ruminant livestock and wildlife to co-graze, and a range of degrees of wildlife-livestock sympatry can be observed in rural smallholder villages. Pilot research suggests that in Botswana wildlife-livestock interactions are common, ruminant parasite burdens are high, and the consequences of parasitism for the food security of subsistence farmers are high. Thus parasitism and community ecology can be readily observed and measured. The student will be able to apply and refine skills developed through their DTP training to develop and test their own hypotheses, whilst also generating o

寄生虫病和病媒传播疾病（VBDs）是全世界动物健康状况不佳和反刍牲畜生产力下降的主要原因，威胁着粮食安全和可持续畜牧业生产。潜在的影响包括商业牲畜饲养系统每英亩生产的肉或奶的重量减少，以及资源贫乏的自给小农完全丧失小畜群。已经开发了寄生虫丰度和VBD传播模型，可用于设计和改进兽医干预计划或放牧管理，以尽量减少疾病风险。然而，研究和模型开发主要集中在集约化管理的反刍牲畜系统上，其中单一物种主要在单一牧草上饲养。对粗放型生产系统的关注较少，其中家畜宿主和感兴趣的寄生虫物种是更广泛的生态群落的一部分，例如英国的公共放牧和南部非洲的旱地放牧系统。在诸如此类的物种多样化环境中，减少寄生虫感染的建议干预措施的有效性尚不清楚。此外，尽管野生动物对世界各地的许多畜牧农民来说存在冲突，但最近的研究表明，牲畜和野生动物共同放牧可能是有益的，可以提高饲料质量，减少蜱虫数量，并从环境中清除胃肠道线虫幼虫。需要进一步研究，以制定考虑到社区生态学和人类与野生动物冲突缓解战略的潜在流行病学影响的寄生虫控制干预战略。学生将：1。在CASE合作伙伴非洲大象（EfA）的支持下，描述博茨瓦纳Makgadikgadi pan国家公园（MPNP）及其周围的群落生态（包括哺乳动物宿主、寄生虫和植被）特征。EfA在MPNP中存在的哺乳动物物种的纵向空间数据集将与学生自己对环境和从哺乳动物宿主非侵入性收集的样本中寄生虫多样性的观察相补充。我们将从文献和一个开放的约34,000个宿主-蜱虫关联数据库中提取更多的宿主-寄生虫关联，以构建一个新的群落结构和季节性共享栖息地使用的网络模型。预测社区结构和干预措施对牲畜接触寄生虫的影响，进而预测牲畜感染寄生虫/病媒传播疾病的风险。在网络模型上进行的全球敏感性分析将确定候选的关键宿主物种以及限制牲畜暴露于寄生虫的栖息地和群落生态条件。在网络模型中引入VBD传输3，可以进一步预测潜在干预措施的预期效果。3. 使用现场观测验证模型输出。将在实地通过测量环境中的寄生虫丰度和牲畜感染的强度来检验模型产出和所提出的假设。具有一系列社区结构的势场站点可以在MPNP易于到达的范围内找到。例如，一些养牛场排除所有其他大型哺乳动物物种，采用强化寄生虫控制策略，并通过焚烧来管理植被覆盖，私人狩猎保护区通常排除大型食草动物，但允许反刍牲畜和野生动物共食，在农村小农村庄可以观察到不同程度的野生动物-牲畜共生。试点研究表明，在博茨瓦纳，野生动物与牲畜的相互作用很常见，反刍动物寄生虫的负担很高，寄生对自给农民的粮食安全造成的后果很高。因此，寄生和群落生态可以很容易地观察和测量。学生将能够运用和完善通过DTP培训开发的技能来开发和测试他们自己的假设，同时也产生0