Welcome! I am a graduate student working with Pejman Rohani and Sonia Altizer at the University of Georgia's Institute of Ecology. I am broadly interested in the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape the epidemiology of infectious diseases in natural systems. Nature is host to tremendous biological diversity. I study how this diversity among animals, especially behavioral characteristics, influence the epidemiological properties of pathogens and subsequent disease risk for humans, other wildlife and domesticated animals. Currently, my work is divided into 3 main questions:
1. How have the ecological characteristics of North American bat species influenced the evolutionary history and present day epidemiology of bat rabies?
Bats in North America are highly variable in their numerical aggregations, dispersal abilities and inter-specific interactions. I am applying phylogenetic methods to molecular sequence data from bats and their rabies viruses to determine whether these ecological differences among species influence rates of transmission between bat species as well as the phylogeographical distribution of both bats and viruses. These data are being analyzed within the context of the historical host shifts and spatial spread to determine the extent to which historical and present day patterns are linked.
2. How does deliberate disturbance of wildlife influence behavior and disease transmission?
Modern human activities are a driving force in shaping the composition of animals communities and the behavior of 'successful' species. I am using mark-recapture and radio-telemetry to study the patterns of dispersal and roost composition in big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) following eviction from houses in suburban Atlanta. Through combining this ecological data with serological and viriological surveillance for rabies, we have shown that exposure to rabies is frequent in bats living in human dwellings and that eviction of bats may result in homogenization of neighboring bat colonies, potentially influencing rabies transmission.
3. How has human land use change influenced the behavioral ecology of vampire bats and their interaction with rabies?
Much of Latin America is currently undergoing dramatic shifts in land use, from intact forest to agricultural areas. Vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) represent a species that have thrived in response to this shift, causing significant losses for human health and economics due to vampire bat-associated rabies. I am interested in studying: 1) how the behavioral ecology of this socially complex species has shifted in response to the addition of a nearly unlimited food supply in the form of livestock and 2) whether these changes influence rabies dynamics on an individual, population or landscape scale.
