Doctoral Dissertation Research: People, Primates, and Pathogens: An Eco-Social Study of Cross-Species Disease Transmission in Western Uganda

新出现的传染病对全球公共卫生构成重大威胁。绝大多数疾病是通过动物的病原体转移进入人类群体的。人类获得性灵长类病毒变异为艾滋病毒的例子是该项目的根本动机。了解人类获得动物病原体的社会和地理背景将使病原体交流中断。这项研究的研究背景是乌干达西部的Kibale森林国家公园，它是灵长类生物多样性的震中，也是人与灵长类互动的焦点。保护和人类生计在环境保护和利用方面的目标相互冲突，给灵长类种群带来了巨大的压力。这既适用于那些生活在公园里的人，特别是那些居住在保护区外高度退化的小片森林中的人。这种压力导致人与灵长类动物之间的互动增加，随着互动的增加，病原体转移的风险也会增加。本研究分析了导致森林斑块周围人与灵长类动物相互作用的生态和社会因素。它调查了与灵长类栖息地相关的人类活动和空间对人类健康的影响。健康和行为调查与活动空间地图相结合，提供了测试疾病、活动和人类与灵长类动物空间之间有意义的关系的数据。将通过与关键线人的面谈来产生进一步的数据。这些访谈为项目提供了人类活动和空间背后的政治、经济和社会结构。研究人员希望找到塑造人类活动和支配活动空间的结构要素；与灵长类动物共享的活动空间对人类健康有重大影响。该项目扩展了目前专注于跨物种病原体传播的生物物理过程的研究。通过同时追求两个目标-一个是探索灵长类接触和传染病风险之间的联系，另一个是了解影响这种接触的结构性因素-我们对当代跨物种疾病研究的空白做出了回应。改善人类活动、灵长类栖息地和健康之间的空间关系将为全球社区提供新出现的跨物种疾病的地理背景。此外，阐明社会、政治和经济结构的细微差别调节传播动态，解决社会结构对疾病生态的复杂影响。灵活的采访方法允许代表人数不足的群体表达对健康和保护的担忧。了解促进疾病传播的社会和空间条件对于预测和预防潜在的大流行跨物种疾病的出现和传播至关重要。

Emerging infectious diseases pose significant threats to global public health. The vast majority of diseases enter the human population through pathogen transfer from animals. The example of a human-acquired primate virus, which mutated to HIV serves as the underlying motivation for this project. Understanding the social and geographic contexts for human acquisition of animal pathogens will enable the interruption of pathogen exchange. The research setting for this research is Kibale Forest National Park in western Uganda, which serves as an epicenter of primate biodiversity and a focus of human-primate interaction. Conflicting goals of conservation and human livelihood over the preservation versus utilization of the environment, result in significant pressure on primate populations. This applies both to those living in the park and especially those inhabiting small, highly degraded patches of forest outside protected areas. This pressure leads to increased interaction between people and primates, and as interaction increases, so does the risk of pathogen transfer. This research analyzes the ecological and social factors that cause people-primate interaction around forest patches. It investigates the impact that human activities and spaces play in relation to primate habitat on human health. Health and behavior surveys combined with maps of activity spaces provide the data to test for meaningful relationships between disease, activities and spaces of people and primates. Further data will be generated through interviews with key informants. These interviews provide the project with the political, economic, and social structures behind human activities and spaces. The investigators expect to find structural elements shaping human activities and dictating activity spaces; and that activity spaces shared with primates significantly impact human health. This project extends current research focused on the biophysical processes of cross-species pathogen transmission. By pursuing two goals simultaneously - one that explores associations between primate exposure and risk of infectious disease and the other to understand structural factors that inform such exposures - we respond to gaps in contemporary cross-species disease research. Refining the spatial relationship between human activities, primate habitat, and health will provide the global community with a geographic context for emerging cross-species disease. Moreover, articulating the nuances of social, political and economic structures mediating transmission dynamics addresses the complex effects of social structure on disease ecology. Flexible interview methods allow underrepresented groups to voice health and conservation concerns. Understanding the social and spatial conditions that promote disease transmission is vital for predicting and preventing the emergence and spread of potentially pandemic cross-species diseases.