SS 15: Connecting Disease with Movement Ecology in Humans and Animals: An Integrated Approach?

Session Organizer(s)

• Maureen Kessler

  Ecology, Montana State University
  Bozeman, MT, USA

Moderator(s)

• Raina Plowright

  Microbiology and Immunology
  Montana State University

Volunteer(s)

• Adounke Mahugnon Gilles Renaud

  wildlife Ecology, Laboratory of Applied Ecology
  Abomey Calavi, Benin

Individual movements and population connectivity determine the spatiotemporal dispersal of human and animal pathogens and the spillover of wildlife pathogens to humans or domestic animals. Use of animal movement ecology and human mobility science to understand linkages between disease processes and movement have advanced largely in parallel. However, human activity has all but removed the spatial and temporal barriers that historically separated places, populations, and species. The human footprint is also changing animal movements globally on scales from foraging movements to migrations. An interdisciplinary approach is critically needed to understand the vital connection between host movement and disease processes, and how to integrate human-wildlife approaches to these questions in a rapidly changing world.
This dynamic session will use discussion-based exchange to explore how movement is integrated into studies of infectious disease spillover and transmission in humans and wildlife. Speakers will use 3-5 minute talks (30 minutes) to introduce overarching questions or key ideas followed by structured group discussion (30 minutes). We will compare fundamental differences in human and wildlife study of host movement and the potential benefits of an integrated human-wildlife approach, exploring topics like the importance of spatial scale, different data streams, and the causes and consequences of altered host movement patterns. Following the session, organizers will engage interested participants in a peer-reviewed synthesis of the session topics. Such a paper will help bridge a gap between human and wildlife researchers, improving the way we study host movement and infectious disease introduction, dispersal, and maintenance in all populations.

Presentations:

• ON DEMAND

  Disease and movement questions in human and animals: shared contexts, but gaps in approach?
  

  Presenting Author: Maureen Kessler – Ecology, Montana State University
• ON DEMAND

  Environmental context and host life-histories in shaping pathogen transfer
  

  Presenting Author: Kezia Manlove – Utah State University
• ON DEMAND

  Fine-scale human movements and pathogen transmission
  

  Presenting Author: Steven T. Stoddard – Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California
• ON DEMAND

  Hosts moving in dynamic contact networks
  

  Presenting Author: Meggan Craft – Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota
• ON DEMAND

  Pathogen natural histories in the speed and patterns of transmission
  

  Presenting Author: Derek A.T Cummings – Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida
• ON DEMAND

  Resource-dependent variation in movement as cross-scale drivers of pathogen transmission
  

  Presenting Author: Richard J. Hall – Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia
• ON DEMAND

  Social forcing and human mixing in pathogen spillover and transmission
  

  Presenting Author: Emily Gurley – Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• ON DEMAND

  Temporal versus spatial scales of host movement
  

  Presenting Author: Paul C. Cross – Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, US Geological Survey