Wildlife and livestock disease and microbiome dynamics in conservation landscapes

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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.