Wildlife Health

Using bats as a model system, we have ongoing collaborative projects broadly answering how biotic and abiotic disturbances affect bat health. These projects include how big brown bat health in the eastern US changes over space and time since the introduction of Pseudogymnoascus destructans (fungus causing white-nose syndrome), how landuse change and pesticide use impacts Neotropical bat health and immunity, and how multiple extrinsic and intrinsic stressors can affect North American bat health.

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Cross-species Transmission Dynamics

Understanding complex pathogen sharing networks across species will help to better understand pathogen spillover risks in the future. Using Neotropical bats as a model system, we use theoretical and empirical methods to determine how contact within and between bat host species impacts pathogen prevalence at local scales. This collaborative project uses varying epidemiological modeling frameworks, multi-species contact networks, and laboratory techniques for detecting coronavirus and herpesvirus in vampire bats and other coroosting species. 

Applied Wildlife Research

Global change caused by humans threatens wildlife populations as habitat destruction, urbanization and agricultural intensification places wildlife in closer contact with humans, contaminants, and toxins. Thus, research aimed at developing feasible solutions to support wildlife health is critical to maintaining wildlife populations in the present and future. We have completed collaborative projects focused on identifying sources that negatively impact wildlife health and testing strategies to improve wildlife health. These previous projects have included identifying extrinsic interactions of concern for exposure to contaminants in foraging bats, identifying sources of increased human-wildlife conflict, and identifying and implementing optimal care for bats with white-nose syndrome in wildlife rehabilitative settings.