Viral Transmission Dynamics at the Human-Wildlife Interface in Western Uganda

Rebecca Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Virus circulation among wildlife is a source for disease outbreaks worldwide. The genetic similarity of humans to nonhuman primates (NHPs) provides an opportunity for viruses to decimate both human and animal populations, especially in areas where human-NHP contact has recently increased, as was seen in the most recent Ebola outbreak. Large knowledge gaps persist concerning the dynamics of viral transmission in heterogeneous natural environments. This project will infer and model the transmission routes of adenovirus (AdV), a pathogen common to humans, NHPs, and other sources, in an interconnected biodiversity hotspot in East Africa. There are four main aims for the project: 1) Obtain fine-grained, longitudinal surveillance data on AdV from samples of human, wild non-human primate, domestic animals, flies, water and soil in a natural, heterogeneous environment considered a spillover hotspot, 2) Apply new phylogenetic and bioinformatics tools to next-generation sequencing data for analysis of AdV presence, abundance, and transmission routes within and among these hosts and environs, 3) Identify whether viral transmission is affected more by host proximity or evolutionary relationships, and 4) Develop metapopulation stochastic models to predict how host species composition, diversity, phylogeny, and proximity influence viral transmission routes, with the ultimate aim to explore methods to mitigate disease transmission and benefit human and animal health. This research will not only provide knowledge of virus transmission in a spillover hotspot; in addition the rigorous protocol itself will be a valuable tool, illustrating how NCBI RefSeq and GenBank data can be used to extend primer sets and reference databases inside state-of-the-art computational tools to viruses. Thus, this project will address some of the grand challenges for infectious disease ecology and evolution, which include the lack of understanding of the contributions of host proximity versus host-relatedness to virus transmission, and the impact of local changes in environmental management on virus transmission.