Tuesday, August 9, 2016: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Grand Floridian Blrm C, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Daniel J. Becker, University of Georgia
Co-organizers:
Sonia Altizer, University of Georgia;
Sonia M. Hernandez, University of Georgia; and
Richard J. Hall, University of Georgia
Moderator:
Daniel J. Becker, University of Georgia
Land-use changes have caused many wildlife to decline, but some species benefit from food resources created in human-dominated habitats. The abundance and predictability of food provided either accidentally, through agricultural practices and urbanization, or intentionally, such as through bird feeding stations and supplemental feeding programs, can make these resources accessible components of wildlife diets. Resource provisioning can in turn result in wildlife populations that are larger, more aggregated, and better-fed than natural counterparts. There is growing awareness that anthropogenic resource provisioning can also affect wildlife–pathogen interactions and contribute to pathogen emergence. However, predicting how pathogen transmission responds to these dietary shifts is challenging. For example, host aggregation around provisioned food resources could increase contact rates and pathogen exposure, but improvements in host immune defenses due to better nutrition might lower infection rates. Therefore, integrating insights from diverse approaches and study systems is needed to reconcile complex and often surprising infection outcomes. This symposium brings together speakers whose work spans across provisioned taxonomic groups including insects, bats, birds, and primates. Three speakers will present evidence on specific mechanisms through which resource provisioning influences wildlife–pathogen interactions across scales of biological organization, ranging from individual immune defense and contact behavior to shifts in migratory patterns. Speakers will cover experimental, field, and mathematical modeling approaches that integrate aspects of resource provisioning into the local and spatial dynamics of pathogen spread. Three other talks will link these mechanisms with their consequences for cross-species pathogen transmission and disease emergence. Speakers will therefore illustrate the diverse mechanisms that drive increased contact between wildlife, humans, and domestic animals around anthropogenic food, and will showcase how ecological insights can inform efforts to manage or control infectious diseases. Our symposium addresses a number of themes that are of increasing interest to many different groups of ecologists, including those interested in animal behavior, infectious disease dynamics, community and population ecology, physiological ecology, ecoimmunology, conservation management, and land-use change.
4:10 PM
Crop-raiding and the potential for pathogen exchange among wild primates, people, and domesticated animals at the forest-agricultural ecotone in East Africa
Thomas R. Gillespie, Emory University;
Innocent B. Rwego, University of Minnesota;
Michele B. Parsons, CDC;
Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, Emory University;
Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf, Franklin and Marshall College;
Iddi Lipende, Jane Goodall Institute;
Shadrack Kamenya, Jane Goodall Institute;
Colin Chapman, McGill University;
Lilian Pintea, Jane Goodall Institute;
Dominic A. Travis, University of Minnesota