Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, San Francisco State University, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA, the University of California, Davis, and the Institute of Ecology at Vilnius University, Lithuania, will conduct a study of the effects of deforestation on the spread of infectious diseases in African rainforest birds. During the past 13 years, researchers have collected more than 4,000 individual blood samples from over 200 rainforest bird species in a variety of habitats across Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, and Uganda. Significantly, the samples were collected from sites both before and after habitat degradation, permitting a unique examination of the direct effects of human-induced habitat alterations. Using complementary techniques of blood smear analysis and molecular biology, samples will be assayed for the pathogens that cause malaria, trypanosomiasis, filiariasis, and tuberculosis. These diseases in birds have very similar pathologies to their human counterparts, making the study of birds an excellent model system. We will use satellite imagery data to predict how changes in forest composition may affect the spread of diseases in the future.
The effects of deforestation on health are diverse and are becoming increasingly apparent with the highly publicized recent outbreaks of several diseases spread to humans by animals. This research project is significant because it will develop models to predict how deforestation will influence future disease outbreaks and facilitate development of reforestation strategies. In addition, the research will involve the training of students and researchers at U.S. institutions serving minorities, and abroad, in Lithuania and Africa.
has yielded many significant results and opened up new areas of research. Our main findings highlight the sensitivity of African rainforest ecosystems to anthropogenic change. By comparing deforested with intact locations, we have found that strains of avian malaria in one common rainforest bird vary in prevalence with habitat change. We have also used remote sensing and sophisticated computer algorithms to develop predictive models for the prevalence of avian malaria and other parasitic diseases. Moreover, we have described several new species of avian blood parasites and linked their morphological characteristics with DNA "bar codes". We have worked with several Cameroonian and Ghanaian scientists, and trained postdoctoral fellows and underrepresented minority graduate and undergraduate students in molecular ecology methods. With funding from this program, we have published 28 studies in scientific journals, with 2 in review or in preparation. With data from this project, we have embarked on studies of mosquitoes, and how they affect the transmission of malaria, and also molecules important for the maintenance of host-specificity. Our research on a whole provides insight into the factors that promote the emergence of novel diseases.
