Conferencia: ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY INSIGHTS INTO THE DYNAMICS AND PREVENTION OF BAT VIRUSES

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Este jueves 23/05/2019 podremos disfrutar de la charla "Ecological and evolutianry insights into the dymanics and prevention of bat viruses", a cargo de Daniel Streicker, investigador de la Universidad de Glasgow e invitado a la Estación Biológica de Doñana por Andrew Mehring.

Será a las 13:00 en el Cabimer

Avda. Americo Vespucio 24. Edif. CABIMER
Parque Científico y Tecnológico Cartuja
41092 - Sevilla (SPAIN)

Daniel Streicker

Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine & MRC-
University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, University of Glasgow
https://streickergroup.wordpress.com/
twitter:@DanielStreicker



ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY INSIGHTS INTO THE DYNAMICS AND PREVENTION
OF BAT VIRUSES

Bats are among the most important and least understood sources of
emerging viral threats, including Ebola, SARS, and Nipah. The impacts
of bat viruses are currently mitigated reactively, by treating the
human or domestic animal hosts after the viruses appear and cause
disease. In this talk, I aim to demonstrate how deeper understanding
of transmission dynamics in bat reservoirs can empower strategic
shifts towards preventing cross-species emergence. First, I will focus
on vampire bat-transmitted rabies, an economically important virus
affecting humans and livestock across Latin America. Data from a
long-term mark-recapture study in Peru will provide ecological
explanations for the inability of widespread bat culls to control
rabies, and recent field experiments with biomarkers will demonstrate
new prospects to prevent human and livestock rabies by applying
self-spreading vaccines to wild bats. Next, by linking host and viral
genetics with landscape data, I will show that we can forecast viral
invasions into currently rabies-free areas, enabling use of
life-saving human and animal vaccines prior to outbreaks. Finally, I
will discuss a machine learning approach to rapidly identify the
unknown animal origins of emerging viruses using signatures of
evolutionary associations with specific host groups embedded into
viral genomes. These three vignettes illustrate how combining
ecological and evolutionary insights can overturn conventional wisdom
on disease control and provide new avenues for preventive management
of wildlife diseases.