The invasion of pathogens into new regions has caused widespread population declines and driven some species to extinction. However, after host species initially decline from disease, it is unclear how some hosts can coexist with pathogens, particularly when the pathogens are lethal. Understanding the mechanisms of host-pathogen coexistence can provide insight into pathways that promote healthy host populations, including disease management strategies and treatments. This global project is a collaboration between U.S. and Chinese scientists and will examine how bats survive with a deadly fungal pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome. This work will explore whether similar coexistence strategies have arisen in bats repeatedly as the disease spread from Asia, to Europe, and then to North America over the last several thousand years. This project also includes communications training for wildlife disease researchers and stakeholders, work with state and local resource managers to develop disease management strategies, and the establishment of international networks to promote cross-border wildlife conservation.
Studying disease dynamics and population impacts along an invasion gradient can facilitate understanding of the host-pathogen interactions that shape populations and species communities. This project will use field studies, lab experiments, and mathematical models to address four central aims: (1) Quantify contact networks and transmission along a pathogen invasion gradient; (2) Determine the role of environmental factors and the strength of selection on host-pathogen dynamics; (3) Examine the role of host resistance, tolerance, and pathogen virulence in population persistence across epidemic and endemic regions, and (4) Determine the impact of disease in endemic regions on current and historic populations using demographic studies and paleogenomics. To address these aims, this project will leverage an interdisciplinary international team to develop a mechanistic understanding of host persistence with a virulent pathogen. Combined, this work has wide-ranging implications for reducing the consequences of emerging infectious diseases in multi-host systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
