nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - Racing ahead of disease outbreaks: $12 million in new research grants

NSF, NIH, partners support studies of how diseases spread among humans, other animals and the environment

Interactions between the environment and humans may foster the spread of infectious diseases. Credit and Larger Version

September 10, 2014

Ebola, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), malaria, antibiotic-resistant infections: Is our interaction with the environment somehow responsible for their increased incidence?

The joint National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) program is providing answers.

The EEID program supports efforts to understand the ecological and biological mechanisms behind human-induced environmental changes and the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases.

Now NSF, NIH and USDA--in collaboration with the U.K.'s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)--have awarded more than $12 million in new EEID grants.

"Recent outbreaks such as the Ebola and MERS viruses, as well as growing threats such as Lyme disease, demonstrate the need for fundamental understanding of pathogen movement and evolution," says Sam Scheiner, NSF program director for EEID.

"This year's EEID awards will contribute to the broader understanding of these threats the program has provided. Because of this increasing body of knowledge, we're able to respond to these new threats more efficiently and effectively."

Now in its 14th year as an interagency partnership, the program has supported 124 research projects.

Projects funded through the EEID program allow scientists to study how large-scale environmental events--such as habitat destruction, invasions of non-native species and pollution--alter the risks of emergence of viral, parasitic and bacterial diseases in humans and other animals.

"The EEID program allows us to access predictive power to more effectively respond to infectious disease," says Daniel Janes, an EEID program director at NIH. "EEID's lines of research seek to identify common dynamics of pathogens that can lead to better prevention of future threats to human health."

Researchers supported by the EEID program are advancing basic theory related to infectious diseases and improving understanding of how pathogens spread through populations.

The benefits of research on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases include development of theories about how diseases are transmitted, improved understanding of unintended health effects of building projects, increased capacity to forecast disease outbreaks, and knowledge of how infectious diseases emerge and re-emerge.

"Agriculture is inextricably linked to the health of the people of the United States and the world--a fact that is made clear as we fight animal and plant diseases," says Sonny Ramaswamy, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture director.

"Research on the evolution and spread of infectious diseases will have a profound effect on our understanding of how to develop solutions that ensure safe and secure food and health for the American people."

This year's EEID awardees will conduct research on such topics as: the effects of landscape structure on disease dynamics; the risk of animal and plant infectious diseases through trade; ants as a model system to study processes influencing the transmission of infectious diseases; mycobacterial transmission in agricultural systems; and the effect of host vaccinations and genetic disease resistance on pathogen transmission, ecology and epidemiology.

"In addition to human health, the health of our livestock and crops is dependent on fundamental research on infectious diseases," says Jackie Hunter, BBSRC chief executive.

"As new threats emerge, this knowledge will enable us to respond more rapidly and effectively to safeguard health and food security."

EEID 2014 Grants:

David Hughes, Pennsylvania State University-University Park:

Ants as a model system to study processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases

Charles Perrings, Arizona State University:

US-UK Collab: Risks of Animal and Plant Infectious Diseases through Trade (RAPID Trade)

Sue VandeWoude, Colorado State University

 

Impacts of Landscape Structure, Host Demography, and Management Interventions on Disease Dynamics

Yrjo Grohn, Cornell University:

US-UK Collab: Mycobacterial Transmission Dynamics in Agricultural Systems: Integrating Phylogenetics, Epidemiology, Ecology, and Economics

Andrew Wargo, College of William & Mary:

The Impacts of Host Vaccination and Genetic Disease Resistance on Pathogen Transmission, Ecology, and Epidemiology

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF, (703) 292-7734, cdybas@nsf.gov

Related WebsitesNSF Special Report: The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/index.jsp
NSF EEID Discovery Article Series: Ten Things to Know about Lyme Disease, and other EEID articles:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=131439
EEID Awards 2013: Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease grants support research on disease transmission:
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129280
EEID Awards 2012: Controlling the Spread of Diseases Among Humans, Other Animals and the Environment:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125496
EEID Awards 2011: Investigating the Spread of Infectious Diseases With NSF, NIH, U.K. Funding: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121607
NSF News: Infectious diseases and climate change intersect with no simple answers: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128617
NSF News: Social Bats Pay a Price: Fungal Disease, White-Nose Syndrome ... Extinction?: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124679
NSF News: History is Key Factor in Plant Disease Virulence: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123869
NSF News: Precautions for Tick-Borne Disease Extend "Beyond Lyme": http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124286
NSF News: Biodiversity Loss: Detrimental to Your Health: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118114


The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2014, its budget is $7.2 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page:
http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/
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 http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
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 http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches:
 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

EEID awardees will study landscape structure and diseases in species like Florida panthers.
Credit and Larger Version

The transmission of mycobacteria in agricultural systems is the focus of an EEID grant.
Credit and Larger Version

The risk of animal and plant infectious diseases spreading through trade is growing.
Credit and Larger Version

EEID scientists will conduct research on disease resistance in fish such as trout and salmon.
Credit and Larger Version

Ants are a model system for studying processes that influence transmission of infectious diseases.
Credit and Larger Version
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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nsf.gov - News - Animal Magnetism: First Evidence That Magnetism Helps Salmon Find Home

Salmon appear to seek the magnetic signature of their home river during their spawning migration.
 

The proportion of salmon using the northern versus southern passage to the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada, could be largely predicted by the magnetic fields of these passages; the closer the magnetic field at a passage entrance matched the field at the river mouth years before when the fish originally swam through it, the more fish used the passage.
Credit: Nathan Putman, Oregon State University

Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (735 KB)

When sockeye salmon migrate from salt water to fresh water, they change color--going from their ocean colors of mostly silver with some darker coloration on their backs (like a lot of other ocean fish) to red when in fresh water.

Credit: Dr. Tom Quinn, University of Washington

Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (986 KB)

Sockeye salmon weigh on average 8 pounds, and may reach 3 feet in length.
Credit: Dr. Tom Quinn, University of Washington
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1.2 MB)
View Video
Amazing Salmon Migrations
Credit and Larger Version

February 7, 2013

View a video of Nathan Putnam, a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University, who is working to solve some of the mysteries of salmon migrations.

When migrating, sockeye salmon typically swim up to 4,000 miles into the ocean and then, years later, navigate back to the upstream reaches of the rivers in which they were born to spawn their young. Scientists, the fishing community and lay people have long wondered how salmon find their way to their home rivers over such epic distances.

How do they do that?

A new study, published in this week's issue of Current Biology and partly funded by the National Science Foundation, suggests that salmon find their home rivers by sensing the rivers' unique magnetic signature.

As part of the study, the research team used data from more than 56 years of catches in salmon fisheries to identify the routes that salmon had taken from their most northerly destinations, which were probably near Alaska or the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, to the mouth of their home river--the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. This data was compared to the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field at pivotal locations in the salmon's migratory route.

The Earth has a magnetic field that weakens with proximity to the equator and distance from the poles and gradually changes on a yearly basis. Therefore, the intensity of the magnetosphere in any particular location is unique and differs slightly from year to year.

Because Vancouver Island is located directly in front of the Fraser River's mouth, it blocks direct access to the river's mouth from the Pacific Ocean. However, salmon may slip behind Vancouver Island and reach the river's mouth from the north via the Queen Charlotte Strait or from the south via the Juan De Fuca Strait.

Results from this study showed that the intensity of the magnetic field largely predicted which route the salmon used to detour around Vancouver Island; in any given year, the salmon were more likely to take whichever route had a magnetic signature that most closely matched that of the Fraser River years before, when the salmon initially swam from the river into the Pacific Ocean.

"These results are consistent with the idea that juvenile salmon imprint on (i.e. learn and remember) the magnetic signature of their home river, and then seek that same magnetic signature during their spawning migration," said Nathan Putman, a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University and the lead author of the study.

Important results

It has long been known that some animals use the Earth's magnetic field to generally orient themselves and to follow a straight course. However, scientists have never before documented an animal's ability to "learn" the magnetic field rather than to simply inherit information about it or to use the magnetic field to find a specific location.

This study provides the first empirical evidence of magnetic imprinting in animals and represents the discovery of a major new phenomenon in behavioral biology.

In addition, this study suggests that it would be possible to forecast salmon movements using geomagnetic models--a development that has important implications for fisheries management.

Get out the map

Putman says scientists don't know exactly how early and how often salmon check the Earth's magnetic field in order to identify their geographic locations during their trip back home. "But," he says, "for the salmon to be able to go from some location out in the middle of the Pacific 4,000 miles away, they need to make a correct migratory choice early--and they need to know which direction to start going in. For that, they would presumably use the magnetic field."

Putman continues, "As the salmon travel that route, ocean currents and other forces might blow them off course. So they would probably need to check their magnetic position several times during this migration to stay on track. Once they get close to the coastline, they would need to hone in on their target, and so would presumably check in more continuously during this stage of their migration."

Putman says that once the salmon reach their home river, they probably use their sense of smell to find the particular tributary in which they were born. However, over long distances, magnetism would be a more useful cue to salmon than odors because magnetism--unlike odors--can be detected across thousands of miles of open ocean.

A long, strange trip

Like other Pacific Salmon, sockeye salmon spawn in the gravel beds of rivers and streams. After the newly hatched salmon emerge from these beds, they spend one to three years in fresh water, and then they migrate downstream to the ocean.

Next, the salmon travel thousands of miles from their home river to forage in the North Pacific for about two more years, and then, as well-fed adults, they migrate back to the same gravel beds in which they were born.

When migrating, salmon must transition from fresh water to sea water, and then back again. During each transition, the salmon undergo a metamorphosis that Putman says is almost as dramatic as the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Each such salmon metamorphosis involves a replacement of gill tissues that enables the fish to maintain the correct salt balance in its environment: the salmon retains salt when in fresh water and pumps out excess salt when in salt water.

Salmon usually undertake their taxing, round-trip migration, which may total up to 8,000 miles, only once in their lives; they typically die soon after spawning.

For more information about this study, see Oregon State University's press release.

-NSF-

Media Contacts Lily Whiteman, National Science Foundation (703) 292-8310 lwhitema@nsf.gov
Mark Floyd, Oregon State University (541) 737-0788 mark.floyd@oregonstate.edu

Program Contacts Michelle Elekonich, National Science Foundation (703) 292-7202 melekoni@nsf.gov

Principal Investigators Nathan Putman, Oregon State University (205) 218-5276 nathan.putman@oregonstate.edu

Related WebsitesArticle about the use of magnetism by sea turtles: http://www.livescience.com/21080-loggerhead-turtle-migration.html
Press release about discovery that sea turtles use magnetism to steer when migrating around the Atlantic basin: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124190

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget is $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

 Get News Updates by Email 

Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

 The National Science Foundation (NSF)

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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