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A Trichy Situation, Kathryn Purple

Cumberland Mountain Naturalist

This issue of the Cumberland Mountain Naturalist discusses Dr Kathryn Purple's research concerning Trichomonosis carried by pigeons.

Morphometric And Molecular Characterization Of An Unpigmented Haemosporidian Parasite In The Neotropical Turnip-Tailed Gecko (Thecadactylus Rapicauda), Nubia E. Matta, Leydy P. González, Mario Vargas-Ramírez, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Ananias A. Escalante, M. Andreína Pacheco

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Morphological traits from blood stages have been the gold standard for determining haemosporidian parasite species. However, the status of some taxa and the value of such traits in parasites from reptiles remain contentious. The scarce sampling of these species worsens the situation, and several taxa lack molecular data. A survey was performed in the Magdalena Department in Colombia, where 16 species of reptiles were captured. A peculiar haemosporidian parasite was found in the Turnip-tailed gecko Thecadactylus rapicauda. This haemosporidian does not show malarial pigment in blood stages under light microscopy; thus, it fits the Garnia genus’s characters belonging to …

Seasonal Habitat Selection By American White Pelicans, Frederick L. Cunningham, Guiming Wang, D. Tommy King

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Resource utilization strategies of avian migrants are a major concern for conservation and management. Understanding seasonal habitat selection by migratory birds helps us explain the ongoing continental declines of migratory bird populations. Our objective was to compare the secondorder and third-order habitat selection by the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos; hereafter pelican) between the breeding and non-breeding grounds. We tested the Lack hypothesis that habitat selection by migratory birds is stronger on the breeding grounds than on the nonbreeding grounds. We used random-effect Dirichlet-multinomial models to estimate the second-order habitat selection between the seasons with the GPS locations …

Effects Of Early‑Life Experience On Innovation And Problem‑Solving In Captive Coyotes, Andrew C. Garcia, Mitchell A. Parsons, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Early-life experience often shapes behaviors like innovation and exploration. These behaviors are important to animals encountering novel food resources in diverse habitats, such as mesocarnivores in urban areas. To understand if early-life experiences impact later-life behavior, we examined how coyotes (Canis latrans) responded to a multi-access puzzle box at two life stages: pup (~ 7 weeks) and dispersal (~ 10 months). We first exposed pups, still living with their parents and littermates, to a baited puzzle box. At dispersal age, we again tested both these pups and an age-matched control group that was not exposed to the puzzle …

The Ecology And Epidemiology Of Malaria Parasitism In Wild Chimpanzee Reservoirs, Erik J. Scully, Weimin Liu, Yingying Li, Jean-Bosco N. Ndjango, Martine Peeters, Shadrack Kamenya, Anne E. Pusey, Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf, Crickette M. Sanz, David B. Morgan, Alex K. Piel, Fiona A. Stewart, Mary K. Gonder, Nicole Simmons, Caroline Asiimwe, Klaus Zuberbuehler, Kathelijne Koops, Colin A. Chapman, Rebecca Chancellor, Aaron S. Rundus, Michael A. Huffman, Nathan D. Wolfe, Manoj T. Duraisingh, Beatrice H. Hahn, Richard W. Wrangham

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) harbor rich assemblages of malaria parasites, including three species closely related to P. falciparum (sub-genus Laverania), the most malignant human malaria parasite. Here, we characterize the ecology and epidemiology of malaria infection in wild chimpanzee reservoirs. We used molecular assays to screen chimpanzee fecal samples, collected longitudinally and cross-sectionally from wild populations, for malaria parasite mitochondrial DNA. We found that chimpanzee malaria parasitism has an early age of onset and varies seasonally in prevalence. A subset of samples revealed Hepatocystis mitochondrial DNA, with phylogenetic analyses suggesting that Hepatocystis appears to cross species barriers more easily than Laverania. …

Exploring The Relationships Between South Texas Northern Bobwhite Populations And Cecal Worms Via System Dynamics, Nicole J. Traub, Benjamin L. Turner, Leonard A. Brennan, Alan M. Fedynich

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Community ecology historically focused on plants and free-living organisms; however, problems such as defining habitat boundaries and obtaining adequate sample sizes arise when evaluating such communities. The unique nature of host-helminth systems allows parasite community ecologists to avoid these problems when testing ecological hypotheses. Unlike free-living communities that have artificially constructed boundaries, parasite communities have well-defined unambiguous boundaries within host individuals. Due to the inherently complex and dynamic nature of ecological systems, traditional experimental methods often require expensive, long-term trials beyond investigators’ time and resource budgets. Conversely, a system dynamics approach facilitates learning about such systems via simulation of ecosystem …

Divergent Neural And Endocrine Responses In Wild-Caught And Laboratory-Bred Rattus Norvegicus, Joanna Jacob, Sally Watanabe, Jonathan Richardson, Nick Gonzales, Emily Ploppert, Garet Lahvis, Aaron Shiels, Sadie Wenger, Kelly Saverino, Janhavi Bhalerao, Brendan Crockett, Erin Burns, Olivia Harding, Krista Fischer-Stenger, Kelly Lambert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Although rodents have represented the most intensely studied animals in neurobiological investigations for more than a century, few studies have systematically compared neural and endocrine differences between wild rodents in their natural habitats and laboratory strains raised in traditional laboratory environments. In the current study, male and female Rattus norvegicus rats were trapped in an urban setting and compared to weight-and sex-matched conspecifics living in standard laboratory housing conditions. Brains were extracted for neural assessments and fecal boli were collected for endocrine [corticosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)] assays. Additionally, given their role in immune and stress functions, spleen and adrenal weights …

Climate Warming Amplifies The Frequency Of Fish Mass Mortality Events Across North Temperate Lakes, Simon P. Tye, Adam M. Siepielski, Andrew Bray, Andrew L. Rypel, Nicholas B.D. Phelps, Samuel B. Fey

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent increases of animal mass mortality events have coincided with substantial changes in global climate. Yet, tractable approaches that predict how climate change will accentuate occurrences of these ecological catastrophes remain nascent. We compiled one of the most comprehensive datasets of lentic fish mortality events, thermal tolerances of affected families, and 1.2 million air and water temperature profiles across 8891 north temperate lakes in North America. Temperature extremes within and across lakes were strongly associated with the three most frequent cause types (infectious agents, summerkills, winterkills). Thermal tolerances mediated the lethality of direct thermal stress, but mortalities of warm- and …

Experimental Infection Of Brazilian Free-Tailed Bats (Tadarida Brasiliensis) With Two Strains Of Sars-Cov-2, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth, Stephanie M. Porter, Karen A. Fox, Mary E. Wood, Daniel Neubaum, Marissa Quilici

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is presumed to have originated from wildlife and shares homology with other bat coronaviruses. Determining the susceptibility of North American bat species to SARS-CoV-2 is of utmost importance for making decisions regarding wildlife management, public health, and conservation. In this study, Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) were experimentally infected with two strains of SARS-CoV-2 (parental WA01 and Delta variant), evaluated for clinical disease, sampled for viral shedding and antibody production, and analyzed for pathology. None of the bats (n = 18) developed clinical disease associated with infection, shed infectious virus, or …

Long-Term Effect Of A Gnrh-Based Immunocontraceptive On Feral Cattle In Hong Kong, Rebecca Pinkham, Ka-Kei Koon, Jason To, Jason Chan, Flavie Vial, Matt Gomm, Douglas C. Eckery, Giovanna Massei

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Increasing human-wildlife conflicts worldwide are driving the need for multiple solutions to reducing “problem” wildlife and their impacts. Fertility control is advocated as a non-lethal tool to manage free-living wildlife and in particular to control iconic species. Injectable immunocontraceptives, such as GonaCon, stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which in turn affects the release of reproductive hormones in mammals. Feral cattle (Bos indicus or Bos taurus) in Hong Kong are an iconic species whose numbers and impacts on human activities have increased over the last decade. Previous studies have proven that a …

Long-Term Effect Of A Gnrh-Based Immunocontraceptive On Feral Cattle In Hong Kong, Rebecca Pinkham, Ka-Kei Koon, Jason To, Jason Chan, Flavie Vial, Matt Gomm, Douglas C. Eckery, Giovanna Massei

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Increasing human-wildlife conflicts worldwide are driving the need for multiple solutions to reducing “problem” wildlife and their impacts. Fertility control is advocated as a non-lethal tool to manage free-living wildlife and in particular to control iconic species. Injectable immunocontraceptives, such as GonaCon, stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which in turn affects the release of reproductive hormones in mammals. Feral cattle (Bos indicus or Bos taurus) in Hong Kong are an iconic species whose numbers and impacts on human activities have increased over the last decade. Previous studies have proven that a …

The Influences Of Disperser Behavior, Host Availability, And Environmental Conditions On The Distribution Of Oak Mistletoe [Phoradendron Leucarpum (Raf.) Reveal & M. C. Johnst.] In Eastern Virginia And North Carolina, Nicholas Pearce Flanders

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Mistletoes are shrubs that typically parasitize the branches of host trees and rely on avian frugivores for seed dispersal. Because mistletoes are restricted to a narrow range of suitable recruitment sites and avian frugivores are more visible than other guilds of seed dispersers, mistletoe-frugivore systems afford opportunities for assessing the roles of dispersal limitation and local environment in determining plant distribution. These mechanisms have been proposed as determinants of the observed association of oak mistletoe [Phoradendron leucarpum (Raf.) Reveal & M. C. Johnst.] with forested wetlands in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, USA. I tested the alternative hypothesis that …

In Vivo Efficacy Of Pyrantel Pamoate As A Post-Exposure Prophylactic For Rat Lungworm (Angiostrongylus Cantonensis), John Jacob, Argon Steel, Lisa Kaluna, Steven Hess, Israel Leinbach, Carmen Antaky, Robert Sugihara, Lindsey Hamilton, Peter Follett, Kathleen Howe, Steven Jacquier, Supakit Wongwiwatthananukit, Susan Jarvi

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) is a neurotropic nematode, and the leading cause of eosinophilic meningitis worldwide. The parasite is usually contracted through ingestion of infected gastropods, often hidden in raw or partially cooked produce. Pharmaceutical grade pyrantel pamoate was evaluated as a post-exposure prophylactic against A. cantonensis. Pyrantel pamoate is readily available over-the-counter in most pharmacies in the USA and possesses anthelmintic activity exclusive to the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Administering pyrantel pamoate immediately after exposure should theoretically paralyze the larvae in the GIT, causing the larvae to be expelled via peristalsis without entering the systemic circulation. In this study, pyrantel …

Current Ecotoxicity Testing Needs Among Selected U.S. Federal Agencies, Patricia Ceger, Natalia Garcia-Reyero Vinas, David Allen, Elyssa Arnold, Raanan Bloom, Jennifer C. Brennan, Carol Clarke, Karen Eisenreich, Kellie Fay, Jonathan Hamm, Paula F.P. Henry, Katherine E. Horak, Wesley Hunter, Donna Judkins, Patrice Klein, Nicole Kleinstreuer, Kara Koehrn, Carlie A. Lalone, James P. Laurenson, Jessica K. Leet, Anna Lowit, Scott G. Lynn, Teresa Norberg-King, Edward J. Perkins, Elijah J. Petersen, Barnett A. Rattner, Catherine S. Sprankle, Thomas Steeger, Jim E. Warren, Sarah Winfield, Edward Odenkirchen

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

U.S. regulatory and research agencies use ecotoxicity test data to assess the hazards associated with substances that may be released into the environment, including but not limited to industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, food additives, and color additives. These data are used to conduct hazard assessments and evaluate potential risks to aquatic life (e.g., invertebrates, fish), birds, wildlife species, or the environment. To identify opportunities for regulatory uses of non-animal replacements for ecotoxicity tests, the needs and uses for data from tests utilizing animals must first be clarified. Accordingly, the objective of this review was to identify the ecotoxicity test data …

Defining An Epidemiological Landscape That Connects Movement Ecology To Pathogen Transmission And Pace-Of-Life, Kezia Manlove, Mark Wilber, Lauren White, Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau, Anni Yang, Marie L.J. Gilbertson, Meggan E. Craft, Paul C. Cross, George Wittemyer, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Pathogen transmission depends on host density, mobility and contact. These components emerge from host and pathogen movements that themselves arise through interactions with the surrounding environment. The environment, the emergent host and pathogen movements, and the subsequent patterns of density, mobility and contact form an ‘epidemiological landscape’ connecting the environment to specific locations where transmissions occur. Conventionally, the epidemiological landscape has been described in terms of the geographical coordinates where hosts or pathogens are located. We advocate for an alternative approach that relates those locations to attributes of the local environment. Environmental descriptions can strengthen epidemiological forecasts by allowing for …

Examination Of Amphibian Community And Environmental Relationships In South Texas Using Environmental Dna (Edna), Sean Michael Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Developing more efficient tools to assess amphibian biodiversity and understanding what environmental variables drive amphibian biodiversity are top priorities, as amphibians are facing extinction events across the globe. Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys are a promising new tool to asses amphibian biodiversity. Throughout the study eDNA metabarcoding along with a targeted eDNA assay and traditional survey methods were used to provide foundational information on amphibian community assemblages throughout South Texas. Water quality, habitat characteristics and soil composition data were collected and used to examine environmental relationships. eDNA metabarcoding detected significantly more amphibian taxonomic units compared to traditional survey …

Optimising Response To An Introduction Of African Swine Fever In Wild Pigs, Kim M. Pepin, Vienna R. Brown, Anni Yang, James C. Beasley, Raoul Boughton, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Ryan S. Miller, Sarah N. Bevins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

African swine fever virus (ASFv) is a virulent pathogen that threatens domestic swine industries globally and persists in wild boar populations in some countries. Persistence in wild boar can challenge elimination and prevent disease-free status, making it necessary to address wild swine in proactive response plans. In the United States, invasive wild pigs are abundant and found across a wide range of ecological conditions that could drive different epidemiological dynamics among populations. Information on the size of the control areas required to rapidly eliminate the ASFv in wild pigs and how this area should change with management constraints and local …

Amplification Of Black Vulture (Coragyps Atratus) Dna From Regurgitated Food Pellets, Daniel R. Taylor, Bryan M. Kluever, John S. Humphrey, Iona M. Hennessy, Amber Sutton, William E. Bruce, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Studies that rely on noninvasive collection of DNA for birds often use feces or feathers. Some birds, such as vultures, regurgitate undigested matter in the form of pellets that are commonly found under roost sites. Our research demonstrates that regurgitated pellets are a viable, noninvasive source of DNA for molecular ecology studies of vultures. Our objectives were to amplify 5 microsatellite loci designed for distinguishing Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) and Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) in a single, multiplexed PCR, and to determine how long the target nuclear DNA persists after a vulture pellet is regurgitated and …

Seasonal Climatic Niche And Migration Movements Of Double-Crested Cormorants, D. Tommy King, Guiming Wang, Fred L. Cunningham

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Avian migrants are challenged by seasonal adverse climatic conditions and energetic costs of long-distance flying. Migratory birds may track or switch seasonal climatic niche between the breeding and non-breeding grounds. Satellite tracking enables avian ecologists to investigate seasonal climatic niche and circannual movement patterns of migratory birds. The Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum, hereafter cormorant) wintering in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) migrates to the Northern Great Plains and Great Lakes and is of economic importance because of its impacts on aquaculture. We tested the climatic niche switching hypothesis that cormorants would switch climatic niche between summer and winter …

Origins Of High Latitude Introductions Of Aedes Aegypti To Nebraska And Utah During 2019, Andrea Gloria-Soria, Ary Faraji, Jeff Hamik, Gregory White, Shanon Amsberry, Matthew Donahue, Bryan Buss, Evlyn Pless, Luciano Veiga Cosme, Jeffrey R. Powell

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Aedes aegypti (L.), the yellow fever mosquito, is also an important vector of dengue and Zika viruses, and an invasive species in North America. Aedes aegypti inhabits tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world and in North America is primarily distributed throughout the southern United States states and Mexico. The northern range of Ae. aegypti is limited by cold winter months and establishment in these areas has been mostly unsuccessful. However, frequent introductions of Ae. aegypti to temperate, non-endemic areas during the warmer months can lead to seasonal activity and disease outbreaks. Two Ae. aegypti incursions were …

Comparative Susceptibility Of Eastern Cottontails And New Zealand White Rabbits To Classical Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (Rhdv) And Rhdv2, Fawzi Mohamed, Thomas Gidlewski, Mary L. Berninger, Heather M. Petrowski, Alexa J. Bracht, Carla Bravo De Rueda, Roger W. Barrette, Meredith Grady, Emily S. O'Hearn, Charles E. Lewis, Karen E. Moran, Tracy L. Sturgill, Lorenzo Capucci, J. Jeffrey Root

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is associated with high morbidity and mortality in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). In 2010, a genetically distinct RHDV named RHDV2 emerged in Europe and spread to many other regions, including North America in 2016. Prior to this study it was unknown if eastern cottontails (ECT(s); Sylvilagus floridanus), one of the most common wild lagomorphs in the United States, were susceptible to RHDV2. In this study, 10 wild-caught ECTs and 10 New Zealand white rabbits (NZWR(s); O. cuniculus) were each inoculated orally with either RHDV (RHDVa/GI.1a; n = 5 per species) or RHDV2 (a recombinant …

Solar Radiation And Soil Moisture Drive Tropical Forest Understory Responses To Experimental And Natural Hurricanes, J. Aaron Hogan, Joanne M. Sharpe, Ashley Van Beusekom, Sarah Stankavich, Samuel Matta Carmona, John E. Bithorn, Jamarys Torres-Díaz, Grizelle González, Jess K. Zimmerman, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Tropical forest understory regeneration occurs rapidly after disturbance with compositional trajectories that depend on species availability and environmental conditions. To predict future tropical forest regeneration dynamics, we need a deeper understanding of how pulse disturbance events, like hurricanes, interact with environmental variability to affect understory demography and composition. We examined fern and sapling mortality, recruitment, and community composition in relation to solar radiation and soil moisture using 17 years of forest dynamics data (2003–2019) from the Canopy Trimming Experiment in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Solar radiation increased 150% and soil moisture increased 40% following canopy trimming of experimental …

Characterizing Endogenous Dicer Products To Unravel Novel Rnai Biogenesis Pathways, Jacob Oche Peter

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

RNA interference (RNAi) is a pervasive gene regulatory mechanism in eukaryotes based on the action of multiple classes of small RNA (sRNA). Exploiting RNAi pathways in non-model systems have great potential for creating potent RNAi technologies. Here, we accessed RNAi-mediated control of gene expression in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae (T. urticae) using engineered dsRNA designed to modulate the host RNAi pathway and increase RNAi efficacy. Analysis of Dicer (Dcr) generated fragments revealed how exogenous RNAs access the host RNAi pathway in this animal, opening avenues for designing RNAi technology for their control. Further, some organisms …

Genomic Tools Reveal Complex Social Organization Of An Invasive Large Mammal (Sus Scrofa), Chelsea L. Titus, Courtney F. Bowden, Timothy J. Smyser, Stephen L. Webb, James C. Beasley

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A comprehensive understanding of sociality in wildlife is vital to optimizing conservation and management efforts. However, sociality is complicated, especially for widely distributed species that exhibit substantive behavioral plasticity. Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa), often representing hybrids of European wild boar and domestic pigs, are among the most adaptable and widely distributed large mammals. The social structure of wild pigs is believed to be similar to European wild boar, consisting of matriarchal groups (sounders) and solitary males. However, wild pig social structure is understudied and largely limited to visual observations. Using a hierarchical approach, we incorporated genomic tools …

Maternal Responses In The Face Of Infection Risk, Patricia C. Lopes, Brenna M. G. Gormally, Aubrey Emmi, Delilah Schuerman, Chathuni Liyanage, Ursula K. Beattie, L. Michael Romero

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

When animals are sick, their physiology and behavior change in ways that can impact their offspring. Research is emerging showing that infection risk alone can also modify the physiology and behavior of healthy animals. If physiological responses to environments with high infection risk take place during reproduction, it is possible that they lead to maternal effects. Understanding whether and how high infection risk triggers maternal effects is important to elucidate how the impacts of infectious agents extend beyond infected individuals and how, in this way, they are even stronger evolutionary forces than already considered. Here, to evaluate the effects of …

Genomic Insights Into Mechanisms Of Microbial Evolution And Evolution-Inspired Strategies To Combat Pathogen Diversity, Saymon Akther

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We live in an era of emerging infectious diseases that are increasingly common, rapidly spreading, and gravely devastating. Lyme disease, caused by bacteria belonging to the genus Borreliella, is rapidly rising in the Northern Hemisphere because of geographic range expansion of both the tick vectors and the pathogens. Evolutionary comparative analysis of Borreliella genomes is a key to understanding the phylogeographic history and mechanisms of their global diversification. Moreover, genomic variations in Borreliella associated with human pathogenicity, e.g., at loci encoding cell-surface antigens interacting with the vertebrate hosts, have not been fully identified. Similarly, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused …

Rethinking Human-Local Wildlife Relations, Yin Chan

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The plight of suburban wildlife receives considerably less attention than that of exotic or endangered species despite facing similar threats due to the decline of their natural habitats as humans expand upon them. From the perspective of a reflective practitioner, this paper provides new avenues to rethink current views on human-local wildlife relations and answer some of the difficult questions surrounding the topic. The methodology of Action Research is employed to explore concepts relevant to human-local wildlife relations. A synthesized practical framework integrating Action Research with Permaculture Design is proposed to create models for mutually beneficial coexistence between local wildlife …

How Environmental Change Will Impact Mosquito-Borne Diseases, Arsal Khan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mosquitos, the most lethal species throughout human history, are the most prevalent source of vector-borne diseases and therefore a major global health burden. Mosquito-borne disease incidence is expected to shift with environmental change. These changes can be predicted using species distribution models. With the wide variety of methods used for models, consensus for improving accuracy and comparability is needed. A comparative analysis of three recent modeling approaches revealed that integrating modeling techniques compensates for trade-offs associated with a singular approach. An area that represents a critical gap in our ability to predict mosquito behavior in response to changing climate factors, …

Large-Herbivore Nemabiomes: Patterns Of Parasite Diversity And Sharing, Georgia C. Titcomb, Johan Pansu, Matthew C. Hutchinson, Kaia J. Tombak, Christina B. Hansen, Christopher C. M. Baker, Tyler R. Kartzinel, Robert M. Pringle

Publications and Research

Amidst global shifts in the distribution and abundance of wildlife and livestock, we have only a rudimentary understanding of ungulate parasite communities and parasite-sharing patterns. We used qPCR and DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples to characterize gastrointestinal nematode (Strongylida) community composition and sharing among 17 sympatric species of wild and domestic large mammalian herbivore in central Kenya. We tested a suite of hypothesis-driven predictions about the role of host traits and phylogenetic relatedness in describing parasite infections. Host species identity explained 27 – 53% of individual variation in parasite prevalence, richness, community composition and phylogenetic diversity. Host and parasite phylogenies …

Hepatitis B And D: A Forecast On Actions Needed To Reduce Incidence And Achieve Elimination, Scott Greenhalgh, Andrew Klug

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Viral hepatitis negatively affects the health of millions, with the worst health outcomes associated with the hepatitis D virus (HDV). Fortunately, HDV is rare and requires prior infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) before it can establish infection and transmit. Here, we develop a mathematical model of HBV and HDV transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the effects of hepatitis B vaccination on both HBV and HDV. Our findings illustrate a hepatitis B vaccination rate above 0.006 year^-1 reduces hepatitis D by over 90%, and a vaccination rate above 0.0221 year^-1 reduces hepatitis B by over 90%, …