Wildlife and livestock disease and microbiome dynamics in conservation landscapes

保护景观中的野生动物和牲畜疾病以及微生物组动态

• 批准号: 2594562
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2594562
• 关键词: Wildlife; livestock; disease; microbiome; dynamics

Human populations have grown exponentially across sub-Saharan Africa over the past century. To provide sufficient and secure food resources for this growing population, there has been large-scale conversion of wildlands for agriculture and pastoral use. Wildlife and livestock are increasing managed in mixed-communities, with frequent interactions around scarce resources such as water. Although this can provide a sustainable future for both wildlife and livestock, it also leads to increased interactions between wildlife populations and domestic animals. These interactions have the potential to impact on disease, parasite and microbe transmission dynamics. However, we currently do not have a clear understanding of how widespread or severe these impacts are. This project will involve working with reserve managers, local populations and researchers in the Laikipia Plateau in Kenya to understand the dynamics, and impact, of gastrointestinal parasite transmission between livestock and wildlife. The student will be based at the University of Manchester in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Smithsonian institute and will conduct field work based at Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia. The main objectives of the project will be to: 1) characterise gut microbiome community composition and gastrointestinal parasite infection patterns in livestock (cattle, sheep and camels) and wildlife populations using genetic meta-barcoding, 2) evaluate the impact of social organisation habitat use, and management strategies (i.e. mixed grazing versus wildlife only or livestock only) on parasites and microbiomes, and 4) use population genetics to understand the and transmission dynamics between wildlife and parasites.

在过去的一个世纪中，人口在整个撒哈拉以南非洲地区成倍增长。为了为这个不断增长的人口提供足够和安全的食物资源，野生地进行了大规模的农业和田园使用。野生动植物和牲畜在混合社区中的管理越来越大，围绕稀缺资源（例如水）进行了频繁的相互作用。尽管这可以为野生动植物和牲畜提供可持续的未来，但也导致野生动植物种群与家畜之间的相互作用增加。这些相互作用有可能影响疾病，寄生虫和微生物传播动力学。但是，我们目前尚不清楚这些影响的普遍性或严重性。该项目将涉及与肯尼亚Laikipia高原的储备经理，当地人口和研究人员合作，以了解牲畜和野生动植物之间胃肠道寄生虫传播的动态和影响。该学生将与国际牲畜研究所（ILRI）和史密森尼学院合作在曼彻斯特大学，并将在Laikipia的Mpala Research Center进行现场工作。该项目的主要目标将是：1）在牲畜（牛，绵羊和骆驼）（牛，绵羊和骆驼）和野生动植物种群中，使用遗传元元模型来表征肠道微生物组社区组成和胃肠道寄生虫感染模式，2）仅评估社会组织栖息地和管理策略的影响（即，仅在Paraz willestive）的影响4）使用种群遗传学来了解野生动植物与寄生虫之间的传播动态。