Added by Malcolm Bennett, last edited by Malcolm Bennett on 15 May, 2008  (view change)

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Study populations

We have been carrying out empirical (and theoretical) studies of pathogen dynamics and the role of pathogens in the population dynamics of rodent hosts for around 10 years. Amongst other advances, this research has demonstrated subtle but important effects of an endemic pathogens, particularly cowpox, on crucial demographic parameters, and enabled us to question assumptions about the transmission dynamics of pathogens in natural populations.

The current programme of work extends the study of host-pathogen dynamics in wildlife (rodent) populations to include the simultaneous monitoring of a number of different pathogens, and to apply the methods and approaches that have been developed in woodland populations of bank voles and wood mice in the Cheshire/Merseside area to populations of field voles in Northumbria exhibiting multi-annual (3-4 year) cycles of abundance.

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Hosts

(L-R) Field vole (larger and on top) and bank vole; bank vole; wood mouse with tick; woodmouse with cowpox but no lesions; great gerbil

Pathogens

The agents studied include:

  • cowpox virus (direct transmission, and acute infection)
  • Bartonella species (transmitted by fleas)
  • Anaplasma (Ehrlichia) phagocytophila (transmitted by ticks)
  • murine gammaherpes virus (assumed to have direct transmission, persistent infection)
  • vole tuberculosis - Mycobacterium microti (a member of the M. tuberculosis complex)
  • Yersinia pestis infections (plague) in wild gerbils in Central Asia
  • lymphochoriomeningitis virus
  • Typanosoma spp
  • Babesia microti
  • Gut helminths

Thus, the pathogens include a diversity of (a) transmission modes, (b) pathogenicities and (c) periods of infectivity, while also including strong candidates for interactions with other pathogens (eg infecting granulocytes (Anaplasma) or erythrocytes (Bartonella), competition between each other and via stresses placed on the immune system). Several of the agents, e.g. cowpox virus, tuberculosis, anaplasmosis and Y. pestis are also zoonotic (transmissible to humans).

Approach

Populations are sampled at (usually) 4-weekly intervals, individuals are uniquely marked with an electronic tag, and a small blood sample is taken from each individual at each sampling time before release back to the wild. Hence, the dynamics of infection and its relation to host dynamics are monitored not only in the population as a whole (variations in prevalence with season, density; which pathogens coexist in hosts more or less than expected; which pathogens are associated with periods of low survival or fecundity; etc.), but also in individuals sampled longitudinally throughout their lives (which pathogen typically precedes, precludes or displaces another; which pathogens are associated in individuals with low survival or fecundity etc.).

 


 

Funding

See also

  1. The role of wildlife in the epidemiology of campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis and VTEC infections
  2. Wild bird studies
  3. Antibiotic resistance in wildlife
  4. Plague studies
  5. Cowpox
  6. Host parasite biology research group

Some publications

  • Crouch AC, Baxby D, McCracken CM, Gaskell RM & Bennett M. 1995 Serological evidence for the reservoir hosts of cowpox virus in British wildlife. Epidemiology and Infection. 115 185-191.
  • Boulanger D, Crouch A, Brochier B, Bennett M, Clement M, Gaskell RM, Baxby D & Pastoret P-P. 1996 Serological survey of orthopoxvirus infection of wild mammals in areas where a recombinant rabies virus is used to vaccinate foxes. Veterinary Record, 138, 247-249.
  • Feore SM, Bennett M, Chantry J, Jones T, Baxby D & Begon, M. 1997 The effect of cowpox virus infection on fecundity in bank voles and wood mice. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. 264 1457-1461.
  • Bennett M, Crouch A, Begon M, Duffy B, Feore S, Gaskell RM, McCracken CM, Vicary L, & Baxby D. 1997 Cowpox in British voles and mice. Journal of Comparative Pathology. 116 35-44
  • Begon M, Feore S, Bown K, Chantrey J, Jones T and Bennett M. 1998 The population dynamics of cowpox virus infection in bank voles: testing fundamental assumptions. Ecology Letters 1 82-86.
  • Ogden, N.H., Bown, K., Horrocks, B.K., Woldehiwet, Z. & Bennett, M. 1998 Granulocytic Ehrlichia infection in ixodid ticks and mammals in woodlands and uplands of the UK. Medical and Veterinary Entomology 12 423-429.
  • Chantrey J, Meyer H, Baxby D, Begon M, Bown K, Feore S, Jones T, Montgomery WI and Bennett M. Cowpox: reservoir hosts and geographic range. 1999 Epidemiology and Infection. 122 455-460
  • Begon M, Hazel SM, Baxby D, Bown K, Cavanagh R, Chantrey J, Jones T & Bennett M 1999. Transmission dynamics of a zoonotic pathogen within and between wildlife host species. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. 266 1-7
  • Gilliver M, Bennett M, Begon M, Feore SM & Hart CA. 1999 Antibiotic resistance found in wild rodents. Nature 401 233-234.
  • Hazel SM, Baxby D, Bennett M, Bown K, Cavanagh R, Chantrey J, Jones TR & Begon M. 2000 A longitudinal study of endemic disease in its wildlife reservoir: cowpox and wild rodents. Epidemiology and Infection. 124 551-562
  • Birtles RJ, Hazel S, Bown K, Begon M, Raoult D and Bennett M. 2000 Evaluation of 16S/23S rRNA amplification and analysis for the detection and differentiation of Bartonella species. Molecular and Cellular Probes. 14 79-87.
  • Birtles RJ, Hazel S, Bown K, Begon M, Raoult D and Bennett M. 2001 Longitudinal monitoring of bartonellosis in British wood mice and bank voles. Epidemiology and Infection 126 323-329.
  • Gilliver MA, Bennett M, Begon M, Hazel SM, Hart CA 2001 Antibiotic resistance - How wild are wild mammals? Reply. Nature 409 38-38.
  • Telfer S, Bennett M, Bown KJ, Cavanagh R, Crespin L, Hazel S, Jones T, Begon M 2002 The effects of cowpox on survival in natural rodent populations: increases and decreases. Journal of Animal Ecology 71 558-568.
  • Mallon DJP, Corkill JE, Hazel SM, Wilson JS, French NP, Bennett M and Hart CA. 2002 Excretion of vancomycin-resistant enterococci by wild mammals. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 8 636-638.
  • Begon M, Bennett M, Bowers R.G., French N.P., Hazel S.M. and Turner J. 2002 A clarification of transmission terms in host-microparasite models: numbers, densities and areas. Epidemiology and Infection 129 147-153.
  • Cavanagh R, Begon M, Bennett M, Ergon T, Graham I, de Haas PEW, Hart CA, Koedam M, Kremer K, Lambin X, Roholl P and van Soolingen D. 2002 Mycobacterium microti infection (vole tuberculosis) in wild rodent populations: a potential reservoir for punlmonary tuberculosis in humans. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 129 147-153.
  • Noyes HA, Ambrose P, Barker F, Begon M, Bennett M, Bown K, Kemp SJ. 2002 Host specificity of Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) species. Bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) from Cheshire, UK, carry only one T. (H.) evotomys 18S rRNA genotype but wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) carry at least two phylogenetically distinct parasites. Parasitology 124 185-190 PubMed
  • Bown KJ, Ellis BA, Birtles, RJ, Durden LA, Lello J, Bennett M 2002. New World origins for hemoparasites infecting United Kingdom grey squirrels (Scuirus carolensis) as revealed by phylogenetic analysis of Bartonella infecting squirrel populations in England and the United States. Epidemiology and Infection 129 647-653.
  • K.J.Bown, M.Bennett, M.Begon, Z. Woldehiwet & N.H.Ogden. 2003 Seasonal dynamics of Anaplasma (Ehrlichia) phagocytophila in a rodent - tick (Ixodes trianguliceps) system in the UK. Emerging Infectious Diseases  9 63-70
  • Blasdell K, McCracken C, Morris A, Nash AA, Begon M, Bennett M, Stewart JP 2003 The wood mouse is a natural host for Murid herpesvirus 4 Journal of General Virology 84 111-113.
  • Begon M, Hazel SM, Telfer S, Bown K, Carslake D, Cavanagh R, Chantrey J, Jones T, Bennett M 2003 Rodents, cowpox virus and islands: densities, numbers and thresholds. Animal Ecology 73 343-355.
  • Bown KJ, Bennett M, Begon M 2004 Flea-borne Bartonelia grahamii and Bartonelia taylorii in bank voles. Emerging Infectious Diseases 10 684-687.
  • Cavanagh RD, Lambin X, Ergon T, Bennett M, Graham IM, van Soolingen D, Begon M 2004 Disease dynamics in cyclic populations of field voles (Microtus agrestis): cowpox virus and vole tuberculosis (Mycobacterium microti). Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. 271 859-867.
  • Telfer S, Bennett M, Bown K, Carslake D, Cavanagh R, Hazel S, Jones T, Begon M 2005 Infection with cowpox virus decreases female maturation rates in wild populations of woodland rodents. Oikos 109 317-322.
  • Carslake D, Bennett M, Bown K, Hazle, S, Telfer S, Begon M 2005.  Space time clustering of cowpox virus infection in wild rodent populations. Journal of Animal Ecology 74: 647-655
  • Smith A, Telfer S, Burthe S, Bennett M, Begon M 2005.  Trypanosomes, fleas and filed voles: ecological dynamics of a host-vector-parasite interaction.  Parasitology 131: 355-365.
  • Begon M, Klassovskiy N, Ageyev V, Suleimenov B, Atshabar B, Bennett M 2006  Epizzotiological parameters for plague (Yersinia pestis infection) in a natural reservoir in Kazakhstan.  Emerging Infectious Diseases 12 268-273.
  • Carslake D, Bennett M, Hazel S, Telferl S, Begon M 2006 Inference of cowpox virus transmission rates between wild rodent host classes using space-time interaction Proc Roy Soc. Lond B 273: 775-782
  • Smith A, Burthe S, Telfer S, Bennett M, Begon M 2006 A role for vector-indeperident transmission in rodent trypanosome infection? International Journal for Parasitology 36: 1359-1366
  • Burthe S, Telfer S, Lambin X, Bennett M, Carslake D, Smith A, Begon M 2006 Cowpox virus infection in natural field vole Microtus agrestis populations: delayed density dependence and individual risk. Journal of Animal Ecology 75:1416-1425
  • Bown KJ, Begon M, Bennett M, Birtles RJ, Burthe S, Lambin X, Telfer S, Woldehiwet Z, Ogden NH 2006 Sympatric Ixodes trianguliceps and Ixodes ricinus ticks feeding on field voles (Microtus agrestis): Potential for increased risk of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in the United Kingdom? Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 6: 404-410
  • Bray D, Bown K, Stckley P, Hurst J, Bennett M, Birtles R.  2007 Haemoparasites of common shrews (Sorex araneus) in Northwest England.  Parasitology 134: 819-826
  • Telfer, S., Begon, M., Bennett, M., Bown, K., Burthe, S., Lambin, X., Telford, G. & Birtles, R. 2007 Contrasting Dynamics of Bartonella spp. in Cyclic Field Vole populations: the Impact of Vector and Host Dynamics. Parasitology 134 413-425.
  • Ehlers, B., Kuchler, J., Yasmum, N., Dural, G., Voigt, S., Schmidt-Chanasit, J., Jakel, T., Matuschka, FR., Richter, D., Essbauer, S., Hughes, DJ., Summers, C., Bennett, M., Stewart, JP., Ulrich, RG. 2007 Identification of novel rodent herpesviruses, including the first gammaherpesvirus of Mus musculus. Journal of Virology, 81:8091-8100
  • Telfer, S., Clough, HE., Birtles, RJ., Bennett, M., Carslake, D., Helyar, S., Begon, M. 2007 Ecological differences and coexistence in a guild of microparasites: Bartonella in wild rodents Ecology 88:1841-1849
  • Becker, SD., Bennett, M., Stewart, JP., Hurst, JL. 2007  Serological survey of virus infection among wild house mice (Mus domesticus) in the UK. Laboratory Animals, 41:229-238
  • Telfer, S., Bennett, M., Carslake, D., Helyar, S., Begon, M. 2007 The dynamics of Murid gammaherpesvirus 4 within wild, sympatric populations of bank voles and wood mice. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 43: 32-3
  • Davis S, Ageyev V, Suleimenov B,  Atshabar B, Klassakovskaya A, Bennett M, Leirs H, Begon M.  2007 Plague metapopulation dynamics in a natural reservoir: the burrow system as the unit of study.  Epidemiology and Infection. 135 740-748
  • Burthe, S; Telfer, S; Begon, M; Bennett, M; Smith, A; Lambin, X 2008 Cowpox virus infection in natural field vole Microtus agrestis populations: significant negative impacts on survival. Journal of Animal Ecology 77 110-119
  • Burthe, S; Bennett, M; Kipar, A; Lambin, X; Smith, A; Telfer, S; Begon, M 2008 Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium microti) in wild field vole populations. Parasitology 135:309-17