Resource quality and
host-parasite dynamics
Supplemented nutrition & immunity to helminths
Experimental diet manipulation in a wood mouse-helminth system
Wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) are a common ecological study system given their tractable populations and diverse natural parasite communities. For my PhD, I carried out paired experiments in wild and captive wood mouse populations, which are host to the well-studied nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus. We found that a supplemented diet in both settings controlled infection, and improved anthelminthic efficacy, host condition, and immunity.
READ THE Paper here pROCEEDINGS B
Poster Presentation. EEID 2018. Glasgow, UK.
Graphical abstract of my first thesis chapter used for the University of Edinburgh Three Minute Thesis Competition. Map source: who.int; H. polygyrus image credit: Constance Finney.
Resource supplementation & diverse parasite communities
dIVERSE IMPACTS OF RESOURCE SUPPLEMENTATION IN A NATURALLY CO-INFECTED HOST POPULATION
Changes to resource availability and quality can drastically affect parasite infection in wild animals. Increasingly, anthropogenic change alters food sources available to wildlife, which has important consequences for wildlife health. However, it is difficult to predict the effects of these changes, as they can happen on multiple scales and that co-infection with multiple parasites is the norm in the wild. I use experimental resource supplementation and parasite community perturbation in a naturally co-infected wild wood mouse population and find that effects of resource changes are dependent on parasite biology and within-host parasite interactions.
Viva card courtesy of Greg Albery, adapted from work of https://webcomicname.com/
Poster Presentation. Jacques Monod 2017 ‘Open Question is Disease Ecology.’ Roscoff, France.