Modeling disease transmission using spatial mapping of vector-parasite genetics and vector feeding patterns

University Of Vermont & State Agricultural College, Burlington VT

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the development of an innovative model of the transmission dynamics of Chagas disease. Chagas disease is a parasitic disease endemic to Latin America that afflicts an estimated 10 million people. The causative agent is a protozoa, Trypanosoma cruzi. The protozoa is most commonly transmitted to people by bloodsucking insects whose populations increase in newly deforested and partially re-forested tropical regions. In this project, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont, the Loyola University New Orleans, and the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, will take a new, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how Chagas is transmitted at both the local and regional scales. While previous research has found connections between single factors and Chagas disease, this will be the first time that multiple contributing factors have been brought together in a single model so that the underlying processes can be identified. The research will be conducted in three localities along the Guatemala-El Salvador border that differ significantly in landscape, socioeconomic, and disease transmission characteristic. In three villages in each region, the scientists will collect and geographically map information on parasite and vector genetic diversity; land use ecology; forest disturbance; blood meal sources; and socio-economic characteristics such as housing type, presence of domestic animals, and use of electric lights. From these data they will develop, test, and validate new models of how Chagas disease transmission. Once validated, these models can then be extended to predict transmission of the many other vector-borne diseases that affect human beings wherever they are found and that cumulatively produce about 1.4 million deaths annually. Findings from this research will be shared with the Guatemalan Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organization to inform their ongoing efforts to stem the tide of Chagas disease in Latin America. The researchers will publish papers in scientific journals and will make their genomic databases and geo-referenced complex systems tools available to other researchers. This research will also benefit graduate and undergraduate students in Louisiana, Vermont, Guatemala and El Salvador through training in genomics, population and molecular genetics, geospatial analysis, and complex systems modeling.