Animal social behaviour and emerging infectious fungal diseases in nature.

该项目旨在提高对动物社会行为在自然界中新兴传染性真菌疾病传播中所起核心作用的认识。应用行为生态学、网络建模和定量遗传学的方法，并利用罕见的感染前和感染后的经验数据，该项目有望对真菌疾病如何通过动物种群传播、动物社会行为如何影响疾病传播以及疾病状态如何影响动物社会行为产生新的认识。该项目应具有国际影响力，并促进目前对疾病动力学的了解。应用结果应告知急需的控制战略，以造福野生动物和保护生物多样性。

This project aims to improve knowledge about the central role that animal social behaviour plays in the spread of emerging infectious fungal diseases in nature. Applying approaches from behavioural ecology, network modelling and quantitative genetics, and utilising rare empirical pre- and post-infection data, the project expects to generate new understandings about how fungal diseases spread through animal populations, how animal social behaviour influences disease transmission, and how disease-status affects animal social behaviour. This project should have international impact, and advance current knowledge about disease dynamics. Applied outcomes should inform much-needed control strategies to benefit wildlife and preserve biodiversity.