Predictive analysis across spatial scales links zoonotic malaria to deforestation.

The complex transmission ecologies of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases pose challenges to their control, especially in changing landscapes. Human incidence of zoonotic malaria ( Plasmodium knowlesi) is associated with deforestation although mechanisms are unknown. Here, a novel application of a method for predicting disease occurrence that combines machine learning and statistics is used to identify the key spatial scales that define the relationship between zoonotic malaria cases and environmental change.

Long-Tailed Macaque Response to Deforestation in a Plasmodium knowlesi-Endemic Area.

Land-use changes can impact infectious disease transmission by increasing spatial overlap between people and wildlife disease reservoirs. In Malaysian Borneo, increases in human infections by the zoonotic malaria Plasmodium knowlesi are hypothesised to be due to increasing contact between people and macaques due to deforestation. To explore how macaque responses to environmental change impact disease risks, we analysed movement of a GPS-collared long-tailed macaque in a knowlesi-endemic area in Sabah, Malaysia, during a deforestation event.

Evidence of synergistic relationships between HIV and Human Papillomavirus (HPV): systematic reviews and meta-analyses of longitudinal studies of HPV acquisition and clearance by HIV status, and of HIV acquisition by HPV status.

Introduction: Observational studies suggest HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections may have multiple interactions. We reviewed the strength of the evidence for the influence of HIV on HPV acquisition and clearance, and the influence of HPV on HIV acquisition.

Methods: We performed meta-analytic systematic reviews of longitudinal studies of HPV incidence and clearance rate by HIV status (review 1) and of HIV incidence by HPV status (review 2).

Comparative assessment of An. gambiae and An. stephensi mosquitoes to determine transmission-reducing activity of antibodies against P. falciparum sexual stage antigens.

Background: With the increasing interest in vaccines to interrupt malaria transmission, there is a demand for harmonization of current methods to assess Plasmodium transmission in laboratory settings. Potential vaccine candidates are currently tested in the standard membrane feeding assay (SMFA) that commonly relies on Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. Other mosquito species including Anopheles gambiae are the dominant malaria vectors for Plasmodium falciparum in sub-Saharan Africa.

An Integrated Framework for Process-Driven Model Construction in Disease Ecology and Animal Health.

Process models that focus on explicitly representing biological mechanisms are increasingly important in disease ecology and animal health research. However, the large number of process modelling approaches makes it difficult to decide which is most appropriate for a given disease system and research question. Here, we discuss different motivations for using process models and present an integrated conceptual analysis that can be used to guide the construction of infectious disease process models and comparisons between them.

Individual-level factors associated with the risk of acquiring human malaria in Malaysia: a case-control study.

Background: The emergence of human malaria due to the monkey parasite threatens elimination efforts in southeast Asia. Changes in land use are thought to be driving the rise in reported cases, but the role of individual-level factors is unclear. To address this knowledge gap we assessed human and environmental factors associated with zoonotic knowlesi malaria risk.

Plasmodium knowlesi invasion following spread by infected mosquitoes, macaques and humans.

Plasmodium knowlesi is increasingly recognized as a major cause of malaria in Southeast Asia. Anopheles leucosphyrous group mosquitoes transmit the parasite and natural hosts include long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques. Despite early laboratory experiments demonstrating successful passage of infection between humans, the true role that humans play in P.

Probability of Transmission of Malaria from Mosquito to Human Is Regulated by Mosquito Parasite Density in Naïve and Vaccinated Hosts.

Over a century since Ronald Ross discovered that malaria is caused by the bite of an infectious mosquito it is still unclear how the number of parasites injected influences disease transmission. Currently it is assumed that all mosquitoes with salivary gland sporozoites are equally infectious irrespective of the number of parasites they harbour, though this has never been rigorously tested. Here we analyse >1000 experimental infections of humans and mice and demonstrate a dose-dependency for probability of infection and the length of the host pre-patent period.

Context-dependent associations between heterozygosity and immune variation in a wild carnivore.

Background: A multitude of correlations between heterozygosity and fitness proxies associated with disease have been reported from wild populations, but the genetic basis of these associations is unresolved. We used a longitudinal dataset on wild Galapagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki) to develop a relatively new perspective on this problem, by testing for associations between heterozygosity and immune variation across age classes and between ecological contexts.

Results: Homozygosity by locus was negatively correlated with serum immunoglobulin G production in pups (0-3 months of age), suggesting that reduced genetic diversity has a detrimental influence on the early development of immune defence in the Galapagos sea lion.

Activation of an inflammatory response is context-dependent during early development of the California sea lion.

Variations in immune function can arise owing to trade-offs, that is, the allocation of limited resources among costly competing physiological functions. Nevertheless, there is little information regarding the ontogeny of the immune system within an ecological context, and it is still unknown whether development affects the way in which resources are allocated to different immune effectors. We investigated changes in the inflammatory response during early development of the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) and examined its association with body condition, as a proxy for the availability of energetic resources.

The history of ecoimmunology and its integration with disease ecology.

Ecoimmunology is an example of how fruitful integrative approaches to biology can be. Since its emergence, ecoimmunology has sparked constructive debate on a wide range of topics, from the molecular mechanics of immune responses to the role of immunity in shaping the evolution of life histories. To complement the symposium Methods and Mechanisms in Ecoimmunology and commemorate the inception of the Division of Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology within the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, we appraise the origins of ecoimmunology, with a focus on its continuing and valuable integration with disease ecology.

Immune activity, body condition and human-associated environmental impacts in a wild marine mammal.

Within individuals, immunity may compete with other life history traits for resources, such as energy and protein, and the damage caused by immunopathology can sometimes outweigh the protective benefits that immune responses confer. However, our understanding of the costs of immunity in the wild and how they relate to the myriad energetic demands on free-ranging organisms is limited. The endangered Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) is threatened simultaneously by disease from domestic animals and rapid changes in food availability driven by unpredictable environmental variation.

How to know unknown fungi: the role of a herbarium.

The development of a universal approach to the identification of fungi from the environment is impeded by the limited number and narrow phylogenetic range of the named internal transcribed spacer DNA sequences available on GenBank. The goal here was to assess the potential impact of systematic DNA sequencing from a fungal herbarium collection. DNA sequences were generated from a diverse set of 279 specimens deposited at the fungal herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (UK) and bioinformatic analyses were used to study their overlap with the public database.