The project officially started on January 1st 2003 and continued
for three and a half years, ending on the 30th of June 2006. A
detailed list of research activities can be found in the Technical
Annex.
Links to Annual reports and the Final Technical Report as
well as peer-reviewed publications derived from the project
can be found on the Publications
page. See also the Final Workshop
page for further information on progress.
The project was the first to attempt to comprehensively address
a range of related questions regarding the risk of zoonotic
disease transmission associated with rodents in rural/peri-urban
areas. The state of knowledge about disease transmission risks
between rodents and humans was advanced through the proposed
project by providing information on how these diseases are
sustained and spread in the environment. It is not known whether
climatic and ecological change is increasing the prevalence
of these diseases within rodent reservoirs or whether anthropogenic
change is increasing human exposure to reservoir populations.
Similarly, an important factor related to transmission of
infectious diseases is population density, implying that increasing
outbreaks of disease may be related to increasing contact
between the rural origin of diseases and peri-urban areas
where diseases can easily spread.
Studying the epidemiology of zoonotic diseases
within the context of improving resource management of natural
capital is a unique approach to developing predictive modelling
tools for risk management strategies. The state of knowledge
is developed by creating predictive tools about disease transmission
risks and testing strategies aimed at reducing disease risks.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) allow the user to correlate
and prioritise factors of change in the environment. A predictive
modelling tool based on GIS can be developed to help determine
which ecological criteria are important in the persistence of
rodent-borne disease. With knowledge of the impact which these
diseases have upon people's livelihoods, risk management strategies
can be developed to reduce the likelihood of disease outbreaks.
The project proposes to test some potential strategies in collaboration
with African communities to reduce the impact of these diseases
on people's livelihoods.
