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

全球变暖下新出现的肺蠕虫感染的营养相互作用和生态学

• 批准号: 2889944
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2889944
• 关键词: Trophic; interactions; ecology; emerging; lungworm

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.

近年来，继 Covid-19 大流行之后，传染病对人类和动物福利造成的风险得到了强调。由于人们的注意力集中在病毒、寄生虫病及其对全球健康的影响上，有时可能会被忽视。尽管许多寄生虫会引起人畜共患疾病并对生物多样性和保护构成威胁。广东管圆线虫是全球人类寄生性脑膜炎的主要原因，此外还导致多种受威胁动物物种死亡。在离家较近的地方，血管圆线虫会导致家养狗患严重疾病，而纹状圆线虫则与欧洲刺猬的呼吸道疾病有关，欧洲刺猬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发生变化。然而，气候模型表明，仅靠环境条件并不能预测当前的寄生虫分布。许多种类的肺线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寄生虫的流行是由行为和生态因素决定的，但目前人们对此知之甚少。通过跟踪寄生虫在不同营养级别和不同气候下的流动，可以确定传播的风险因素。反过来，“同一个健康”实践者可以采取更有针对性的行动来预防人畜共患疾病，并向自然资源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。该项目期间将采用多种方法的组合；将针对不同气候下腹足动物宿主物种的摄食和温度调节选择进行行为实验，将检查来自寄生虫和最终宿主的样本，以确定寄生虫感染如何影响宿主的健康状况，并利用分子技术来跟踪寄生虫的运动复杂的食物网。该项目旨在调查英国野生动物物种中的 A. vasorum 和 C. striatum 物种的生态学和流行病学。然而，这些发现将用作其他密切相关的肺虫物种的模型。鉴于人畜共患的广州曲霉最近入侵南欧，这一点尤其重要。