# The Impact of Land Use Change on Transmission Potential Networks and Disease Spread in Rural Madagascar

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $75,792

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Anthropogenic land-use change influences multiple dimensions of infectious disease transmission
among humans and other animals. Under parent grant RO1 TW011493, we are taking an ecological and
evolutionary approach to investigate zoonotic disease emergence in rural Madagascar, where several
zoonotic diseases represent significant public health challenges. To capture the complexity of dynamics
at the human-animal interface, we are studying multiple host and pathogen species along gradients of
land use change. An overarching goal of the research is to build epidemiologically relevant networks that
represent social, close-contact, and environmental overlap among humans, domesticated mammals,
and small mammals, and to test whether these “transmission potential networks” (TPNs) capture
variation in infection patterns. This supplemental request addresses this important goal by funding
research to screen for gastrointestinal bacterial pathogens, which are significant contributors to
diarrheal diseases, one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Co-investigators in our partner lab at
the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) will screen for a wide range of pathogenic and non-
pathogenic bacteria using 16S rRNA metabarcoding, which will be supplemented with high-throughput
approaches to differentiate pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli. This work will
complete our characterization of major parasite groups (viruses, helminths, protozoa, and bacteria) that
are spread via different transmission pathways among multiple host species. Supplemental funding is
essential to this effort to extend the laboratory research at UCSB, where parent grant funding was
originally focused on helminth screening. The relative ease and low cost of additional bacterial pathogen
screening provides an unprecedented opportunity to enrich the multi-host, multi-pathogen dataset to
achieve the Specific Aims in the parent grant. Supplemental funds will also support additional lab work
to complete helminth screening, which was interrupted due to COVID-related complications of shipping,
limited time in the lab, and personnel shortages. The parent RO1 grant supports all fieldwork, DNA
extractions, and data analysis as part of the current sampling plan.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10645238
- **Project number:** 3R01TW011493-04S2
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Charles Nunn
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $75,792
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-07-17 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10645238

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10645238, The Impact of Land Use Change on Transmission Potential Networks and Disease Spread in Rural Madagascar (3R01TW011493-04S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10645238. Licensed CC0.

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