| 项目编号: | 1557022
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| 项目名称: | Pathogen invasion and persistence in an establishing host population: Leptospirosis in the endangered island fox |
| 作者: | James Lloyd-Smith
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| 承担单位: | University of California-Los Angeles
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| 批准年: | 2016
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| 开始日期: | 2016-06-01
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| 结束日期: | 2020-05-31
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| 资助金额: | 370822
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| 资助来源: | US-NSF
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| 项目类别: | Standard Grant
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| 国家: | US
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| 语种: | 英语
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| 特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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| 英文关键词: | island
; island fox
; pathogen
; fox
; fox population
; host
; leptospirosis
; pathogen invasion
; invasion
; california island
; rare host species
; population monitoring datum
; project
; new host population
; long-term persistence
; santa rosa island
; disease
; host population
; island community
; common pathogen
; leptospirosis spread
; fox reintroduction
; fox health
; population crash
; rare host
; new host species
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| 英文摘要: | Pathogens are tiny organisms that cause disease and sometimes death in a "host" species. Because invasion of pathogens into new host populations can have dramatic effects on hosts, including humans, ecologists have long studied the causes and consequences of pathogen invasion. Previous work has focused on situations in which pathogens invade host populations that are stable and already established. That work does not help us understand infectious disease in two other situations that are important: when a new host species is spreading across a landscape (where disease might help slow its spread) and when a rare host species is deliberately reintroduced as part of a conservation program (where disease is a threat to conservation goals). This project will be the first in-depth study of the second situation. It will explore how a rare host and common pathogen interact from the initial reintroduction of the host and invasion of the pathogen to their long-term persistence or die-out. The investigators will study an endangered Island Fox population, recently reintroduced to a California island. The foxes are now experiencing a major outbreak of a disease called leptospirosis, which causes major health problems for humans and wildlife around the world. This project will build understanding of how leptospirosis spreads in wildlife and eventually can infect humans and livestock. Island foxes are a rare success story in which Endangered Species Act protections have enabled the fox population to recover; this work will guide future management of Island Foxes. More generally, this work will inform risk assessment and disease control in other reintroduction programs. The project includes outreach efforts to inform the public, including southern California school-children, about conservation and disease issues.
The study system is the Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis) on Santa Rosa Island, California. After a population crash in the late 1990s, all 14 remaining foxes on Santa Rosa were taken into captivity. A reintroduction program, beginning in 2004, reestablished foxes on the island, but an outbreak of Leptospira interrogans (the agent of leptospirosis) was discovered in 2010. Analysis of banked serum samples showed that the outbreak was already widespread on the island by 2009-10, and the pathogen likely invaded the fox population as it re-colonized the island after fox reintroduction. The island spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis) was also found to be infected, and genetic analyses indicate a close link to a Leptospira strain circulating in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) that frequent the island. Extensive sample banks and population monitoring data provide a unique opportunity to reconstruct the history of this pathogen invasion. This project will integrate field, laboratory, genomic and modeling approaches. Its goals are to determine the source of Leptospira in the Santa Rosa outbreak, characterize transmission dynamics in the island community throughout the establishment process, predict whether Leptospira will persist on the island, and assess the impact of Leptospira on fox health and conservation. The investigators will generalize the findings to extract lessons and tools to be applied to other disease systems. |
| 资源类型: | 项目
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| 标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/92296
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| Appears in Collections: | 全球变化的国际研究计划
科学计划与规划
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| Recommended Citation: | |
James Lloyd-Smith. Pathogen invasion and persistence in an establishing host population: Leptospirosis in the endangered island fox. 2016-01-01.
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