Linking individual traits, the gut microbiome and parasite load in wildlife

该项目旨在将群落生态学原理应用于城市掠夺者--常见的刷尾负鼠--的肠道微生物群，以揭示动物特征如何影响肠道寄生虫负载的个体差异，这些寄生虫会导致人类和野生动物患病。通过将定义个人行为和生理状态的分析与对其肠道微生物组的复杂分析相结合，我们的项目将为疾病如何传播以及为什么传播提供一个新的、但至关重要的视角。我们的发现将有助于了解和管理由我们城市内外以及人与野生动物界面上的寄生虫引起的传染病的负担；这对于在日益城市化的澳大利亚改善人类和野生动物健康至关重要。

This project aims to apply principles of community ecology to the gut microbiome of an urban exploiter – the common brushtail possum - to reveal how animal traits influence individual variation in the load of gut parasites that cause disease in both humans and wildlife. By combining assays defining the behavioural and physiological states of individuals with sophisticated analyses of their gut microbiome, our project will provide a new, yet crucial, perspective on how and why diseases spread. Our discoveries will help understand and manage the burden of infectious diseases from parasites in and beyond our cities and across the human-wildlife interface; essential for improving human and wildlife health in an increasingly urbanised Australia.