Ecology and Epidemiology

Understanding where, when, and why pathogens cause outbreaks in wildlife and human populations requires the study of infectious diseases through an ecological and epidemiological lens. Studies of ecology and epidemiology often focus on population-level scales to answer questions such as; What factors of the host, pathogen, and environment drive the emergence of novel pathogens or host jumps into new species? What transmission modes are most important for the spread of a given pathogen? What environmental drivers facilitate disease spread over space and time? What strategies will work best for controlling and managing pathogens of humans and wildlife?

Scientists in the CeZAP Ecology and Epidemiology thematic area address these questions using approaches that span fields such as computational and mathematical biology, conservation biology, molecular biology, genomics, parasitology, and microbiology. We also work across diverse host and pathogen study systems, including small mammal wildlife reservoirs of SARS Cov2, mosquito and tick vectors of human viruses, amphibians and chytrid fungus, vampire bats and rabies virus, mongooses and tuberculosis, humans and malaria parasites, bats and white-nose syndrome, and songbirds and mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. These diverse approaches and systems are critical for approaching infectious disease from a One Health framework, understanding the complex ways in which infectious diseases of wildlife and humans intersect with the environment and each other. Ecological and epidemiological approaches help capture the dynamics of infectious disease systems in ways that allow us to ultimately apply what we know from mechanistic lab studies to effectively understand and even control pathogens in real-world scenarios.

Highlight Research relating to the specific thematic area:

• Kathleen Alexander founded the Centre for African Resources, Animals, Communities, and Land Use (CARACAL) in Botswana. The nonprofit brings a One Health vision to conservation efforts in Botswana.
• Dana Hawley leads a study showing how symptoms of illness help pathogens spread among songbirds
• Korine Kolivras expertise in medical geography examines the links between environmental variability and human health.
• An interdisciplinary team consisting of Joseph Hoyt, Carla Finkielstein, Kate Langwig, and James Weger-Lucarelli received a $5 million grant from USDA to explore COVID-19 virus ecology at the human-animal interface
• Luis Escobar receives an NSF CAREER award to study disease transmission among wildlife and across a geographic scale

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