Wildlife and livestock disease and microbiome dynamics in conservation landscapes

在过去的一个世纪里，撒哈拉以南非洲的人口呈指数级增长。为了为不断增长的人口提供充足和安全的粮食资源，已经进行了大规模的荒地农牧化。野生动物和牲畜越来越多地在混合社区中得到管理，围绕水等稀缺资源的互动频繁。虽然这可以为野生动物和牲畜提供一个可持续的未来，但它也导致野生动物种群和家养动物之间的互动增加。这些相互作用有可能对疾病、寄生虫和微生物传播动力学产生影响。然而，我们目前还不清楚这些影响的广泛性和严重性。该项目将与肯尼亚莱基皮亚高原的保护区管理人员、当地居民和研究人员合作，了解家畜和野生动物之间胃肠道寄生虫传播的动态和影响。这名学生将与国际牲畜研究所(ILRI)和史密森研究所合作，在曼彻斯特大学工作，并将在莱基皮亚的姆帕拉研究中心进行实地工作。该项目的主要目标将是：1)利用遗传元条形码描述家畜(牛、羊和骆驼)和野生动物种群的肠道微生物群落组成和胃肠道寄生虫感染模式；2)评估社会组织栖息地使用和管理策略(即混合放牧与仅限野生动物或仅限牲畜)对寄生虫和微生物群的影响；以及4)利用种群遗传学了解野生动物和寄生虫之间的传播动态。

Human populations have grown exponentially across sub-Saharan Africa over the past century. To provide sufficient and secure food resources for this growing population, there has been large-scale conversion of wildlands for agriculture and pastoral use. Wildlife and livestock are increasing managed in mixed-communities, with frequent interactions around scarce resources such as water. Although this can provide a sustainable future for both wildlife and livestock, it also leads to increased interactions between wildlife populations and domestic animals. These interactions have the potential to impact on disease, parasite and microbe transmission dynamics. However, we currently do not have a clear understanding of how widespread or severe these impacts are. This project will involve working with reserve managers, local populations and researchers in the Laikipia Plateau in Kenya to understand the dynamics, and impact, of gastrointestinal parasite transmission between livestock and wildlife. The student will be based at the University of Manchester in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Smithsonian institute and will conduct field work based at Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia. The main objectives of the project will be to: 1) characterise gut microbiome community composition and gastrointestinal parasite infection patterns in livestock (cattle, sheep and camels) and wildlife populations using genetic meta-barcoding, 2) evaluate the impact of social organisation habitat use, and management strategies (i.e. mixed grazing versus wildlife only or livestock only) on parasites and microbiomes, and 4) use population genetics to understand the and transmission dynamics between wildlife and parasites.