CAREER: Marshaling NEON Resources to Understand Wildlife Disease Transmission

职业：整理 NEON 资源以了解野生动物疾病传播

• 批准号: 2235295
• 负责人: Luis Escobar
• 金额: $ 70.4万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2028-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2235295&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Marshaling; NEON; Resources; Understand

Wild animals carry many different kinds of pathogens that can be transmitted to other individuals of the same or different species. The virus that causes COVID is a likely example. These transmission events are thought to be influenced by environmental conditions, which affect wildlife abundance, distribution, and health. This NSF CAREER project focuses on how changes in environmental conditions contribute to pathogen transmission from wildlife to humans. Researchers will study wild rodent populations in North and South America, providing a comprehensive investigation of wildlife disease transmission across different ecosystems. Results will help answer how changes in rainfall and temperature influence pathogen infection rates in wildlife and hence the likelihood that those pathogens will spread to humans. Such information will inform strategies to prevent new epidemics. Students will participate in international field expeditions in South America and laboratory work in Virginia, an educational summer program at Virginia Tech, and a new course on how to map wildlife diseases.Researchers will investigate hantavirus circulation in wild rodents and model the risk of transmission to humans. Data will be analyzed from the continental United States [National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)] and Chile to provide comprehensive environmental gradients, diverse rodent species, and two hantavirus lineages. Rodents will be sero-surveyed and demographic and epidemiological parameters will be estimated from field data. These data will be integrated through ecological niche modeling. Models will help elucidate the linkages between environmental suitability of the rodent host and transmission patterns of hantavirus. The project features a strong educational component, including an exchange program between United States and Chilean scholars.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

野生动物携带许多不同种类的病原体，这些病原体可以传播给相同或不同物种的其他个体。引起互联的病毒是一个可能的例子。这些传播事件被认为受环境条件的影响，这些事件影响了野生动植物的丰富性，分布和健康。这个NSF职业项目的重点是环境状况的变化如何促进从野生动植物到人类的病原体传播。研究人员将研究北美和南美洲的野生啮齿动物种群，对不同生态系统的野生动植物疾病传播进行全面的研究。结果将有助于回答降雨和温度的变化如何影响野生动植物的病原体感染率，从而影响这些病原体传播给人类的可能性。这些信息将为防止新流行病的策略提供信息。学生将参加南美的国际野外探险和弗吉尼亚州的实验室工作，弗吉尼亚理工大学的教育夏季计划以及有关如何映射野生动植物疾病的新课程。研究人员将调查野生啮齿动物中的汉塔病毒循环，并模拟传播风险人类。数据将从美国大陆[国家生态观测网络（NEON）]和智利分析，以提供全面的环境梯度，多样化的啮齿动物物种和两个汉塔病毒谱系。啮齿动物将进行血清调查，人口统计学和流行病学参数将从现场数据估算。这些数据将通过生态利基建模整合。模型将有助于阐明啮齿动物宿主的环境适用性与汉坦病毒的传播模式之间的联系。该项目具有强大的教育组成部分，包括美国和智利学者之间的交流计划。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来获得支持的。