Urbanization and Macroparasite Infection of Amphibians

过去缺乏能够估计感染和疾病频率的方法，阻碍了对感染和疾病的长期趋势的了解。在这个项目中，研究人员将采用为生物医学目的开发的超声波成像技术来检查野生动物的感染和疾病历史。这项研究将利用自然历史博物馆持有的数千份标本，具体评估人类对环境的发展与两栖动物感染和疾病的速度和强度之间是否存在关联。已经推断出发育和疾病之间的联系，但测试这种联系的数据很少。这个项目的建立既利用了在追求生物医学进步方面所做的巨大投资，也利用了博物馆科学家先前的努力。先进的成像技术和自然历史的传统实践相结合，将促进不可替代的博物馆标本的无损使用。研究人员还建议对活体动物使用安全、快速的超声波成像技术，减少为评估感染及其后果而牺牲动物的需要。总而言之，这项研究将阐明人类对环境的利用与对自然系统的后果之间的一种鲜为人知的关系。

Understanding long term trends in infection and disease is hindered by the lack of methods capable of estimating their frequency in the past. In this project, investigators will adapt ultrasound imaging technology developed for biomedical purposes to examine the history of infection and disease in wildlife. The research will take advantage of the many thousands of specimens held by natural history museums to evaluate, specifically, whether there is an association between development of the environment by humans and the rates and intensities of infection and disease in amphibians. A link between development and disease has been inferred, but data to test the association are sparse.Funding of this project leverages both the enormous investments made in the pursuit of biomedical advances as well as the prior efforts of museum based scientists. The combination of an advanced imaging technique and the traditional practice of natural history will promote the nondestructive use of irreplaceable museum specimens. The investigators also propose to use safe, quick ultrasound imaging techniques on live animals reducing the need to sacrifice animals to evaluate infection and its consequences. Collectively, the research will illuminate a poorly understood relationship between human use of the environment and the consequences for natural systems.