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Gilbertson MLJ, Hart SN, VanderWaal K, Onorato D, Cunningham M, VandeWoude S, Craft ME. Seasonal changes in network connectivity and consequences for pathogen transmission in a solitary carnivore. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17802. [PMID: 37853051 PMCID: PMC10584909 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44815-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Seasonal variation in habitat use and animal behavior can alter host contact patterns with potential consequences for pathogen transmission dynamics. The endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) has experienced significant pathogen-induced mortality and continues to be at risk of future epidemics. Prior research has found increased panther movement in Florida's dry versus wet seasons, which may affect panther population connectivity and seasonally increase potential pathogen transmission. Our objective was to determine if Florida panthers are more spatially connected in dry seasons relative to wet seasons, and test if identified connectivity differences resulted in divergent predicted epidemic dynamics. We leveraged extensive panther telemetry data to construct seasonal panther home range overlap networks over an 11 year period. We tested for differences in network connectivity, and used observed network characteristics to simulate transmission of a broad range of pathogens through dry and wet season networks. We found that panthers were more spatially connected in dry seasons than wet seasons. Further, these differences resulted in a trend toward larger and longer pathogen outbreaks when epidemics were initiated in the dry season. Our results demonstrate that seasonal variation in behavioral patterns-even among largely solitary species-can have substantial impacts on epidemic dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie L J Gilbertson
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
- Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
| | - S Niamh Hart
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Kimberly VanderWaal
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Dave Onorato
- Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Naples, FL, 34114, USA
| | - Mark Cunningham
- Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA
| | - Sue VandeWoude
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA
| | - Meggan E Craft
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA
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Gilbertson MLJ, Fountain-Jones NM, Malmberg JL, Gagne RB, Lee JS, Kraberger S, Kechejian S, Petch R, Chiu ES, Onorato D, Cunningham MW, Crooks KR, Funk WC, Carver S, VandeWoude S, VanderWaal K, Craft ME. Apathogenic proxies for transmission dynamics of a fatal virus. Front Vet Sci 2022; 9:940007. [PMID: 36157183 PMCID: PMC9493079 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2022.940007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying drivers of transmission-especially of emerging pathogens-is a formidable challenge for proactive disease management efforts. While close social interactions can be associated with microbial sharing between individuals, and thereby imply dynamics important for transmission, such associations can be obscured by the influences of factors such as shared diets or environments. Directly-transmitted viral agents, specifically those that are rapidly evolving such as many RNA viruses, can allow for high-resolution inference of transmission, and therefore hold promise for elucidating not only which individuals transmit to each other, but also drivers of those transmission events. Here, we tested a novel approach in the Florida panther, which is affected by several directly-transmitted feline retroviruses. We first inferred the transmission network for an apathogenic, directly-transmitted retrovirus, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and then used exponential random graph models to determine drivers structuring this network. We then evaluated the utility of these drivers in predicting transmission of the analogously transmitted, pathogenic agent, feline leukemia virus (FeLV), and compared FIV-based predictions of outbreak dynamics against empirical FeLV outbreak data. FIV transmission was primarily driven by panther age class and distances between panther home range centroids. FIV-based modeling predicted FeLV dynamics similarly to common modeling approaches, but with evidence that FIV-based predictions captured the spatial structuring of the observed FeLV outbreak. While FIV-based predictions of FeLV transmission performed only marginally better than standard approaches, our results highlight the value of proactively identifying drivers of transmission-even based on analogously-transmitted, apathogenic agents-in order to predict transmission of emerging infectious agents. The identification of underlying drivers of transmission, such as through our workflow here, therefore holds promise for improving predictions of pathogen transmission in novel host populations, and could provide new strategies for proactive pathogen management in human and animal systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie L. J. Gilbertson
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
| | | | - Jennifer L. Malmberg
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
- Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States
| | - Roderick B. Gagne
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
- Wildlife Futures Program, Department of Pathobiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Kennett Square, PA, United States
| | - Justin S. Lee
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Simona Kraberger
- The Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
| | - Sarah Kechejian
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Raegan Petch
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Elliott S. Chiu
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Dave Onorato
- Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Naples, FL, United States
| | - Mark W. Cunningham
- Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gainesville, FL, United States
| | - Kevin R. Crooks
- Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - W. Chris Funk
- Department of Biology, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Scott Carver
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
| | - Sue VandeWoude
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | - Kimberly VanderWaal
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
| | - Meggan E. Craft
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
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Rinkevich B. Augmenting coral adaptation to climate change via coral gardening (the nursery phase). JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2021; 291:112727. [PMID: 33957417 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2020] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Unceasing climate change and anthropogenic impacts on coral reefs worldwide lead the needs for augmenting adaptive potential of corals. Currently, the most successful approach for restoring degraded reefs is 'coral gardening', where corals are farmed in underwater nurseries, then outplanted to damaged reefs. Dealing with enhanced coral adaptation, the 'coral gardening' approach is conceptually structured here within a hierarchical list of five encircling tiers that include all restoration activities, focusing on the nursery phase. Each tier encompasses all the activities performed in the levels below it hierarchically. The first is the 'coral mariculture' tier, followed by the 'ecological engineering' tier. The third is the adaptation-based reef restoration (ABRR) tier, preceding the fourth ('ecosystem seascape') and the fifth ('ecosystem services') tiers. The ABRR tier is further conceptualized and its constituent five classes (phenotypic plasticity, assisted migration, epigenetics, coral chimerism, holobiont modification) are detailed. It is concluded that the nursery phase of the 'gardening' tenet may further serve as a platform to enhance the adaptation capacities of corals to climate change through the five ABBR classes. Employing the 'gardening' tiers in reef restoration without considering ABRR will scarcely be able to meet global targets for healthy reef ecosystems in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baruch Rinkevich
- Israel Oceanography and Limnological Research, National Institute of Oceanography, Tel Shikmona, PO Box 9753, Haifa, 3109701, Israel.
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