DISEASE CONTROL AND CONSERVATION: APPLYING GRAZING PRESSURE TO SOLVE 'THE WORLD'S WORST WILDLIFE INFECTIOUS DISEASE'

疾病控制和保护：利用放牧压力解决“世界上最严重的野生动物传染病”

• 批准号: 2441861
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2441861
• 关键词: DISEASE; CONTROL; CONSERVATION; APPLYING; GRAZING

BACKGROUND & TIMELINESS: Naturally occurring diseases threaten ecosystem function, biodiversity, and humans (zoonotic infections). This is especially true for the spread of aquatic borne diseases, which are predicted to be altered by climate-change. Ecologically robust mitigation strategies are needed to tackle this global-landscape issue. To date, efforts have focused on the hosts (e.g. direct treatment) but have had varied success and can damage ecosystem health. Better approaches are required.NOVELTY: A promising, ecologically sustainable approach is to target the disease's infectious stages at its source, preventing spread across aquatic landscapes. Many animal-diseases are spread by aquatic spores. These nutritious and vulnerable infective stages are then susceptible to aquatic grazers. Enhancing grazing is anticipated to be a valuable mitigation strategy for pathogens of wildlife, livestock, and humans. Understanding, and potentially augmenting, the role of grazers is a new and exciting area of conservation biology.OBJECTIVES: This PhD will focus on the "worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates": Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). This devastating chytrid fungus has caused mass declines in amphibians worldwide. Bd infects via aquatic spores that are consumed by invertebrates and protozoa. Our initial studies suggest that small grazers may be manipulated to mitigate Bd infections, but the direct impact of grazers and the indirect effect of climate change on grazers and Bd remain unknown. To evaluate grazer-control, the study will have five integrated components: 1) field work to survey, isolate, and identify grazers, 2) laboratory work to parameterize a temperature-host-parasite-grazer model; 3) ecosystem modelling to predict grazer impacts; 4) mesocosms to test model predictions; 5) conservation assessment (review), to evaluate impacts of mitigation strategies and climate change. The student will be supervised by experts: Montagnes (grazer biology, experimental design), Warren (grazer identification and characterization), Bass (aquatic diseases); Fenton (parasite biology, modelling); Garner (host biology, conservation).

背景和时效性：自然发生的疾病威胁着生态系统功能、生物多样性和人类（人畜共患感染）。对于水生疾病的传播尤其如此，预计这些疾病将因气候变化而改变。需要采取生态稳健的缓解策略来解决这一全球景观问题。迄今为止，人们的努力主要集中在宿主身上（例如直接治疗），但取得了不同程度的成功，并且可能损害生态系统的健康。需要更好的方法。新颖性：一种有前途的、生态上可持续的方法是从源头针对疾病的传染阶段，防止在水生景观中传播。许多动物疾病是通过水生孢子传播的。这些营养丰富且脆弱的感染阶段很容易受到水生食草动物的影响。加强放牧预计将成为减轻野生动物、牲畜和人类病原体的一项有价值的策略。了解并可能增强食草动物的作用是保护生物学中一个令人兴奋的新领域。 目标：本博士将重点研究“脊椎动物中有史以来最严重的传染病”：Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)。这种毁灭性的壶菌已导致全世界两栖动物大量减少。 Bd 通过被无脊椎动物和原生动物消耗的水生孢子进行感染。我们的初步研究表明，可以操纵小型食草动物来减轻 Bd 感染，但食草动物的直接影响以及气候变化对食草动物和 Bd 的间接影响仍然未知。为了评估食草动物控制，该研究将包含五个综合组成部分：1）调查、隔离和识别食草动物的实地工作，2）参数化温度-宿主-寄生虫-食草动物模型的实验室工作； 3）生态系统建模以预测食草动物的影响； 4）中宇宙来测试模型预测； 5）保护评估（审查），评估缓解策略和气候变化的影响。学生将受到以下专家的监督：Montagnes（食草动物生物学、实验设计）、Warren（食草动物鉴定和表征）、Bass（水生疾病）；芬顿（寄生虫生物学、建模）；加纳（宿主生物学，保护）。