Trophic interactions and the ecology of emerging lungworm infections under global warming

近年来，在Covid-19大流行之后，传染病对人类和动物福利构成的风险得到了强调。由于关注病毒，寄生虫病及其对全球健康的影响有时可能被忽视。尽管许多寄生虫引起人畜共患疾病，并对生物多样性和保护构成威胁，但仍存在这种情况。除了在多种受威胁的动物物种中造成死亡外，广州管圆线虫是全球人类寄生虫性脑膜炎的主要原因。在离家更近的地方，血管圆线虫会导致家养狗患上严重疾病，而纹状体乳突虫则与欧洲刺猬的呼吸道疾病有关，后者在英国被列为易危物种。一些肺虫物种的地理和时间范围似乎正在随着气候变化而变化。然而，气候模型表明，仅靠环境条件并不能预测目前寄生虫的分布。许多种类的肺虫具有复杂的生活史，需要多个宿主来完成每个周期。寄生虫与宿主的接触以及因此产生的寄生虫流行是由行为和生态因素决定的，而这些因素迄今知之甚少。通过跟踪寄生虫在不同营养水平和不同气候下的流动，可以确定传播的危险因素。这样一来，“同一个健康”的从业者就可以采取更有针对性的行动，预防人畜共患疾病，并向保护主义者和野生动物康复者通报脆弱动物物种面临的风险。在这个项目中，将采用多种方法；研究人员将对腹足类动物在不同气候条件下的摄食和体温调节选择进行行为实验，并对来自异源宿主和最终宿主的样本进行检查，以确定寄生虫感染如何影响宿主的适应性，并利用分子技术跟踪寄生虫在复杂食物网中的运动。本项目旨在调查英国野生物种中维索麻和纹状麻的生态学和流行病学。然而，这一发现将被用作其他密切相关的肺蠕虫物种的模型。考虑到最近人畜共患广东亚种入侵南欧，这一点尤为重要。

The risk posed to human and animal welfare by infectious diseases has been emphasised in recent years following the Covid-19 pandemic. With attention focused on viruses, parasitic diseases and their impacts on global health may sometimes be overlooked. This is despite many parasites causing zoonotic disease and posing a threat to biodiversity and conservation.Angiostrongylus cantonesis is the leading cause of parasitic meningitis in humans globally, in addition to causing mortality in multiple threatened animal species. While closer to home, Angiostrongylus vasorum causes severe disease in domestic dogs and Crenosoma striatum is associated with respiratory disease in European hedgehogs which are classed as a vulnerable species in the UK. The geographic and temporal ranges of several lungworm species appear to be shifting in response to climate change. However, climate modelling has shown that environmental conditions alone do not predict the current parasite distributions. Many species of lungworm have a complex life history requiring multiple hosts to complete each cycle. Parasite-host encounters and thus parasite prevalences are determined by behavioural and ecological factors that are as yet poorly understood. By following the flow of parasites across different trophic levels and under differing climates, risk factors for transmission can be identified. In turn allowing more targeted action by One Health practitioners in preventing zoonotic disease, as well as informing conservationists and wildlife rehabilitators about risks to vulnerable animal species. A combination of approaches will be employed during this project; behavioural experiments will be conducted on the feeding and thermoregulatory choices of gastropod host species in differing climates, samples from paratenic and definitive hosts will be examined to determine how parasitic infection affects host fitness, and molecular techniques will be used to track the movements of parasites through complex food webs. This project aims to investigate the ecology and epidemiology of A. vasorum and C. striatum species within wildlife species in the UK. However, the findings will be used as a model for other closely related lungworm species. This is especially relevant given the recent incursion of zoonotic A. cantonensis into Southern Europe.