Spatial interactions between livestock and their environment as a determinant of parasitic disease risk.

寄生虫给全世界的养羊业造成了巨大的损失，并对动物的福利产生了重大的不利影响。过度使用药物已导致一些具有重要经济意义的寄生虫产生抗药性，并主张采取一种更可持续的方法，即只治疗高度感染的个体。然而，通过实验室测量(如粪卵计数)来评估感染是昂贵的。该项目将开发使用全球定位系统(GPS)项圈和加速计来监测绵羊的行为，以了解空间使用如何与感染风险相关，空间使用如何随着寄生虫负载的增加而变化，以及寄生虫负载如何影响运动以及羊个体之间的互动方式。最后，你将设计并进行受控现场实验，以测试抗寄生虫药物对这些参数的影响，以确定寄生虫负载对行为的影响是否可以逆转。该项目将专注于胃肠道线虫，如圆尾线虫、肝吸虫(其蜗牛中间宿主更喜欢潮湿环境)和扁虱(它们更喜欢边缘栖息地和粗野的放牧，并携带几种重要疾病)。在所有三位主管的大力支持下，将有大量实地工作和数据分析的组成部分。试点项目将建立在现有研究的基础上，将栖息地利用与扁虱和线虫风险有关，并在动物行为研究中使用GPS数据。您将获得广泛技能方面的培训，包括评估福利指标和寄生虫负载、采样微生境以有效绘制野外高危区域地图、实地观察行为以证实GPS数据、数据分析以从GPS坐标数据中提取潜在的行为指标，以及统计分析以探索寄生虫负载如何与空间使用和移动相关联。在畜牧业中很少使用行为分析来评估感染及其后果，尽管寄生虫对一系列物种的动物行为有许多影响，但该项目将通过利用技术来监测行为并评估行为与寄生虫感染之间的相互作用，从而开辟新的领域。该项目的一个主要长期目标是开发可在现实环境中使用的感染风险和寄生虫载量的行为指标。

Parasites cause massive losses to the sheep industry worldwide and have major detrimental effectson the welfare of animals. Overuse of drugs has led to resistance in a number of economically-important parasites, and a more sustainable approach of only treating highly infected individuals isadvocated. However, assessing infection from laboratory-based measurements such as faecal eggcounts is costly. This project will develop the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) collars andaccelerometers to monitor sheep behaviour, in order to understand how space use is related to riskof infection, how space use changes with increased parasite load, and how parasite load affectsmovement and the ways in which individual sheep interact with one another. Finally, you will designand carry out controlled field experiments to test the effects of anti-parasite drugs on theseparameters, to determine whether the effects of parasite load on behaviour can be reversed.The project will focus on gastrointestinal nematodes such as Teladorsagia circumcincta, the liver fluke(whose snail intermediate host prefers wet environments), and ticks (which prefer edge habitat andrough grazing, and carry several important diseases). There will be large components of both fieldworkand data analysis, with significant support from all three supervisors. Pilot projects will build onexisting studies relating habitat use to tick and nematode risk, and on use of GPS data in animalbehaviour studies.You will gain training in a wide range of skills, including assessment of welfare indicators and parasiteload, sampling microhabitats to effectively map at-risk areas in fields, field observations of behaviourto corroborate GPS data, data analysis to extract potential behavioural indicators from GPS coordinatedata, and statistical analysis to explore how parasite load is associated with space use and movement.There is little utilisation of behavioural assays in livestock husbandry to assess infection and itsconsequences, despite the numerous effects parasites have on animal behaviour in a range of species.This project will break new ground by harnessing technology to monitor behaviour and assess theinteraction between behaviour and parasite infection. A major long-term goal of the project is todevelop behavioural indicators for infection risk and parasite load which can be utilised in real-worldsettings.