Programs
and Initiatives | Research
Grants
Ecology
of Infectious Diseases Initiative
Updated
March 2003
This joint NIH-NSF initiative
supports efforts to understand the underlying ecological and
biological mechanisms that govern relationships between
human-induced environmental changes and the emergence and
transmission of infectious diseases.
The highly interdisciplinary research projects will
study how large-scale environmental events — such as habitat
destruction, biological invasion, and pollution — alter the
risks of emergence of viral, parasitic, and bacterial diseases
in humans and other animals.The Ecology of Infectious
Diseases program is a collaboration between:
National
Science Foundation (NSF)
Four National
Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes and Centers
—
* Fogarty
International Center (FIC)
* National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
* National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
* National
Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
and
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Initial
Awards
Initial awards were made to fund 12 research projects under the Ecology of Infectious Diseases initiative. The grants are jointly funded
by NSF and three NIH Institutes and Centers (FIC, NIAID and NIEHS). These
four organizations jointly committed more than $23 million to
fund the projects over a period of 5 years.
Initial awards made by the Fogarty International Center (FIC):
* Dr.
Philip Craig and colleagues at the University of Salford
(UK), together with investigators in China,
France,
Ireland, Japan, and the United States,
study the transmission of human alveolar echinococcosis
(a
highly pathogenic disease resulting from infection by a
tapeworm) in farming communities in China.
The project
aims to develop predictive models of relative risk to humans
of this and other parasitic diseases in relation to animal
husbandry and land-use practices, including deforestation.
* Dr. Charles King of Case Western Reserve University, leads a
collaboration of investigators from the United States,
Israel, and Kenya to research the impact of human population
growth and climate variation on human infection rates by the
blood fluke Schistosoma haematobium in Kenya.
Infection with S.
haematobium causes urinary schistosomiasis, a major
cause of human morbidity and mortality
throughout Africa and the Mideast.
The goal of this project is to define predictive
principles and methods for effective interruption of
parasite transmission from snails to human hosts.
* Dr.
Stephen McGarvey of Brown University, together with
investigators in Holland, the Philippines, and England,
studies the ecology and transmission of the blood fluke Schistosoma japonicum associated with rice cultivation in the
Philippines. The
objective of this project is to develop a dynamic
model of the influence of agricultural expansion and
intensification, including specific management practices, on
the risk of human infection and disease.
Initial awards made by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):
* Dr.
Eliska Rejmankova and colleagues at the University of
California, Davis lead a team of researchers from the
United States and Belize to study the effects of
deforestation and phosphorus runoff from agricultural fields
on the populations of mosquito vectors of malaria and the
risk of human infection.
* Dr. Thomas Unnasch and colleagues at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham lead a collaboration to study the ecology
of mosquito-borne encephalitis virus diseases, including
Eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, and
West Nile virus in the southeastern United States.
The goal of this project is to
elucidate the ecological factors necessary to promote viral
enzootics and to identify the factors necessary to allow the
viruses to escape the avian zoonotic cycle and infect humans
and other mammals.
* Dr. Scott Weaver and colleagues at the University of Texas
Medical Branch lead a collaborative effort that
includes the USDA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S.
Naval Medical Research Center Detachment in Peru to examine
the effects of environmental changes, such as deforestation,
habitat fragmentation, urbanization, and the introduction of
exotic mosquitoes, on the ecology of several mosquito-borne
viruses endemic to the Peruvian Amazon and on the risk of
infection in humans.
Initial awards made by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS):
* Dr. Joseph Kiesecker and colleagues at the Pennsylvania State
University lead a study seeking to understand the
influence of physical and chemical changes in wetlands on
outbreaks of flatworm parasites in amphibian hosts in the
northeastern United States.
The goal of this study is to identify key
environmental changes resulting from urbanization that
influence outbreaks of parasitic diseases.
Initial awards made by the National Science Foundation (NSF): * Dr. David Anderson and colleagues at Colorado State University
lead a collaborative effort with the USGS and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the
ecology of rabies
transmission in commensal bat colonies with the aim of
developing a predictive model to help understand risk of
bat-borne diseases in relation to urban sprawl.
* Dr. Andre Dhondt and colleagues at Cornell University lead
a project to study a pathogenic bacterium, Mycoplasma
gallisepticum, in house finches in order to develop
predictive models on the spread of aerially transmitted
bacterial diseases. Emphasis
will be placed on human contributing factors, including
population density, bird feeding, farming, and urban sprawl
(which modify the spread and maintenance of disease).
The results will aid in understanding this pathogen
and a variety of other aerially transmitted diseases.
* Dr. Wayne Getz
of the University of California, Berkeley
collaborates with investigators from South Africa to study
the spread and impact of bovine tuberculosis in the African
buffalo in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
This project will examine the influence of population
distribution, population structure, and population movement,
as well as a variety of environmental variables, including
fires, water availability, vegetation, and placement of
fencing.
*
Dr. N. Thompson Hobbs and colleagues at Colorado State
University, in collaboration with investigators at the USGS
and elsewhere, are examining the effect of changing land use
on the spatial and temporal dynamics of prion disease in
wildlife. The
project aims to develop models of disease dynamics
and use the models to investigate the effects of habitat
compression and fragmentation resulting from sustained
changes in human land use.
* Dr.
Linda Lowenstine and colleagues at the University of
California, Davis lead a team of investigators from the
Marine Mammal Laboratory, the National Marine Fisheries
Service, and others to study the interaction of
organochlorine pollutants in the development of herpesvirus
infections and cancer in California sea lions.
The study aims to identify key internal and external
environmental factors in order to develop a predictive model
of infection and cancer incidence in this sentinel species
for marine and coastal systems.
For additional
information on the Ecology of Infectious Diseases
Initiative, please contact the Program Director or the Program
Specialist:
Dr.
Joshua P. Rosenthal
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Building 31, B2C39
31 Center Drive MSC 2220
Bethesda, MD 20892-2220
Phone:
(301) 496-1653
Fax: (301) 402-2056
E-Mail: Joshua_Rosenthal@nih.gov
or
Amanda
Percival
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Building 31, B2C39
31 Center Drive MSC 2220
Bethesda, MD 20892-2220
Phone:
(301) 496-7614
Fax: (301) 402-2056
E-Mail: percival@mail.nih.gov
Archive:
* The first announcement for this
program appeared in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts November 16, 1999: RFA:
TW-00-002.
* The second announcement for this
program appeared in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts
February 27, 2001: RFA:
TW-01-004.
* Frequently
Asked Questions for
the second RFA.
* News
Release: November
1, 2000: Ecology of Infectious Diseases Grants Jointly
Announced by National Institutes of Health and National
Science Foundation
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